Fall into the gap

In the '60s heyday of the “generation gap,” the parents really were just a generation older than their rebellious kids. Now a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in years to come, it'll be intriguing to see how such tensions play out for the growing number of families where the age gap is considerably larger.

The CDC report notes a 5 percent rise last year in the birth rate among women age 40 to 44—to 8.7 births per 1,000 women vs. 8.3 births in 2002. Combined with the small number of births to women age 45 to 54, “This is the first time that births to women over 40 topped 100,000 in a single year.” Elsewhere in the age range, the birth rate was down 1 percent for women 20 to 24, up 2 percent for women age 25 to 29, up 4 percent for those in the 30 to 34 bracket and up 6 percent in the 35 to 39 cohort. Statistics like this should lend the expression “Kids these days!” an even more exasperated tone.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

December 2, 2004 | Permalink