The official 2011 tally from state health officials is not yet available. But three major hospital chains — which together welcome most of Utah’s babies — say their delivery numbers remained flat or continued to drop. Utah, long home to the nation’s highest fertility rate, reached its zenith in 2008 with 55,605 newborns. But statewide births have slowed every year since then, with 52,164 counted in 2010.
The drop has widely been attributed, at least in part, to the lingering impact of the recession. Salt Lake Tribune
Note: I've added a chart showing recent Utah birth data from the Utah Department of Health. If past history holds true (i.e. the Great Depression), the declining number of births in Utah may indeed have a recession-related component. However, it may also reveal a demographic element. You'll notice that the last dip in Utah births occurred in roughly 1982 to 1987. (A second echo of the baby bust of the Great Depression and WWII.) Women born during those years are now in their prime child-bearing years. In other words, fewer women, fewer births.
