Are We In a Baby Boom?

The National Center for Health Statistics just reported that last year broke the record for baby births in the United States: 4,315,000. Says one expert: "It's a particularly interesting record because the year it beats is 1957, which was the height of the baby boom." But conditions now are vastly different from those 50 years ago, during the prosperity of post-World War II. The average woman is now having two children, not four (but we've got double the population) and she is more likely to be 40-plus and/or unmarried. Immigrants as a group are the most significant contributors to the uptick in births. Is it really a new baby boom, or just a fluke? Demographers say it's too soon to tell.