As with much of the nation, Utah’s fertility rate has declined each year since the Great Recession in 2008. But experts disagree about whether this poses a problem for the state, which remains one of the most fertile and one of the fastest-growing.
Utah averaged 2.29 births per woman in 2015 down from 2.68 in 2007, compared to a nationwide average of 1.84 in 2015. This lower fertility rate is likely to persist, according to speakers at a Thursday seminar hosted by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah.
The panel debated why the rate is ticking down, and what it means for the economy and the state’s predominate Mormon population, since a lower number of births per woman makes a state more reliant on migration.