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View Full Version : 9/11 and the U.S. birth rate

Malice
07-13-2010, 09:28 AM
Just curious if anyone knows whether there was a noticeable baby boom or bust in the year after Sept. 11, 2001? Locally, regionally or nationally?
Acsenray
07-13-2010, 09:39 AM
Snopes says no (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/babyboom.asp).
ChrisBooth12
07-13-2010, 11:49 AM
Really there was NO difference? I would have to image 3000 people dying all within a small area have to impact somehow. Than again those people lived all over the greater new york area, so they are probably more spread out.

EDIT: Where any pregnant women killed? Did they count the death of the unborn baby as well? I am just curious because I know you can be tried for two murders if you kill an unborn baby and its mother.
dracoi
07-13-2010, 12:05 PM
Really there was NO difference? I would have to image 3000 people dying all within a small area have to impact somehow. Than again those people lived all over the greater new york area, so they are probably more spread out.

3,000 people out of 300,000,000? That would result in a change in the pregnancy rate of just 0.001% which is smaller than a rounding error on this kind of thing. And that rate assumes (incorrectly) that the 3,000 were an average sample of the US population by gender, age and ethnicity.

Even 3,000 out of the greater New York area is just a tiny drop in the bucket.

People want the numerical significance of the attacks to equal the emotional significance... but it's just not true.
Anne Neville
07-13-2010, 01:56 PM
In 2001, more than 42,000 Americans were killed in car accidents, probably around 20,000 died of flu, and about 15,000 were murdered. 9/11 killed fewer Americans than any of those other causes.

By comparison, World War II killed about 400,000 Americans over four years.

Than again those people lived all over the greater new york area, so they are probably more spread out.

No, they lived all over the country. Some of the people on those flights to California were on their way home. And don't forget the people who were killed at the Pentagon. Most of them (other than the people on the plane) probably lived in the DC area.
hajario
07-13-2010, 02:07 PM
No, they lived all over the country. Some of the people on those flights to California were on their way home. And don't forget the people who were killed at the Pentagon. Most of them (other than the people on the plane) probably lived in the DC area.

Not to mention that most of them probably had all of the kids they were going to have anyway.