Population explosion is a global reality. Everywhere there is an increase in the birth rate and decline of death rates. Life expectancy is becoming better and people are living longer everywhere across the world. It is commonly said in India that population in developed western countries is on a retrograde but I read a news report in Dallas Morning News which says that there is a baby boom in US.

According to the report 4.3 million babies were born in US in 2006 and this is the highest in the past 45 years. Hispanics accounted for nearly 25 percent of this birth rate.

“An Associated Press review of birth numbers dating to 1909 found the total number of U.S. births was the highest since 1961, near the end of the baby boom. An examination of global data also shows that the United States has a higher fertility rate than every country in continental Europe, as well as Australia, Canada and Japan. Fertility levels in those countries have been lower than the U.S. rate for several years, although some are on the rise, most notably in France,” says the article filed by Associated Press.

I read with interest as they cite reasons for this baby boom. Apparently there has been a drop in contraceptive sales and also in access to legal and healthy abortion, poor education and poverty. In India America is widely hailed even by educated professionals as a nation of prosperity and knowledge. But these figures are apalling.

The article further reveals that Hispanics are 40 percent more fertile than other Americans. And in central states of the US people like and want to have more children, if they can afford to raise one. Even at 4.3 million births a year rate of American population growth could be far lesser than that of India which records approximately 25 million births a year.

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