Well, it appears that the stats room is in high gear, looking for little tidbits to help us…know more tidbits it seems. Here is one that may be obvious.

From The Swamp, with our chart info to provide a good visual…..

This adds new meaning to the concept(ion) of economic stimulus:

Recessions, it appears, serve as a form of birth control, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center which Bloomberg News is reporting on today.

Looking at 25 states that have produced birth statistics for 2008, the first full year of the official recession that also officially recently ended, Pew found that the birth rate fell by 1.6 percent that year — the sharpest decline in seven years, when there were a lot of jobs, and babies, being created.

The slump also produced a 2 percent drop in income, which averaged $39,765.

Trends in births, housing prices, employment and income have a “strong association,” Pew senior researcher Gretchen Livingston tells Bloomberg’s David Wilson.

There were 2.29 million babies born in 2008, or 68.8 for every 1,000 women, in the 25 states that Pew studied. The ratio peaked in 2007 at 69.9, the highest level in two decades.

(Click to enlarge)