Emails, Lila Valencia, legislative and state agency liaison, Texas Demographic Center, Oct. 9, 2017
2:14 p.m.
In 2015, Texas Vital Statistics show 403,439 births. http://healthdata.dshs.texas.gov/VitalStatistics/Birth
For this same year, the CDC shows a total of 3,978,497 births. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db258.htm
The Texas share of births in 2015 was 10.14% of all U.S. births.
Similarly in 2014, the Texas share of total U.S. births was slightly greater than 10 percent (10.02%).
In reviewing birth data over the last ten years, 2005 to 2015, it appears the Texas share of births has been steadily increasing, even following drops in the number of births following the great recession. If current total fertility rates and the child-bearing age distribution of women in each state remains the same, we would anticipate the Texas share of births to continue to increase given the younger age distribution of the state, its larger Hispanic share of the population, and its significant population growth relative to other states.
Please see below for the 2005 to 2015 births data.
Let us know if you have any questions or additional data requests.
Thank you,
Lila
From: Selby, Gardner (CMG-Austin)
Sent: Monday, October 9, 2017 2:28 PM
Subject: Circling back, three queries
Thanks very much.
The CDC report on births in 2015 presents a different figure for births in Texas (403,618). Thoughts?
CDC otherwise responded by noting 2016 figures here though I wasn’t able to open them.
Should I be able to tell from the figures you provided below the latest year TX did NOT account for 1 in 10 U.S.-born babies? If not, can you advise on that?
Much appreciated,
g.
4:56 p.m.
I’m not sure of the origin of the discrepancy between the CDC and the Texas Vital Statistics figures. I can definitely look into it further and see if I can find something.
I have updated the table of births in Texas and U.S. to include births going back to 1960. It seems Texas having 1 in 10 births is a more recent phenomena. If rounding, you could say this has been the case since 2008, when Texas accounted for 9.54% of all births in the U.S. However, without rounding, Texas has only recently (2014) made up a full 10% of all births in the U.S. Again, this is most likely attributable to the relatively younger and more diverse (read increasingly Hispanic) population in Texas.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thank you,
Lila