No help from Mississippi

[Dave Loudin]

WV is number one in deaths! Sigh.

[Lester]

All 10 states with the lowest birth rates voted for Barack Obama last year. That includes all six of the New England states, which had lower birth rates than any other state. Nine of the 10 states with the highest birth rates voted for John McCain. (Hawaii was the exception.)

Abortion?

[AmpedNow]

All 10 states with the lowest birth rates voted for Barack Obama last year. That includes all six of the New England states, which had lower birth rates than any other state. Nine of the 10 states with the highest birth rates voted for John McCain. (Hawaii was the exception.)

Abortion?

Maybe in part, but the higher affluence, career orientation and better birth control practices of young people in those states likely have more to do with it.

I don't know what politics have to do with these numbers... Local cultures and lifestyles have more to do with it.

What's alarming about the WV numbers is it doesn't factor in population outflow, which is still happening on a daily basis. So, even if nobody ever moved away ever again, West Virginians are still dying off faster than they are repopulating.

Maybe it's a good thing that the state's teens have an abysmal record of birth control use and pregnancy rates. Otherwise, the entire state will die off or move away in just a couple of generations.

[Bob Campbell]

More intelligence = lower birth rate = vote for Obama.
Simple.

[lastone]

You forget......WV IS the state with the OLDEST population. Thus the highest deathe rate.
No mystery here.

[AmpedNow]

You forget......WV IS the state with the OLDEST population. Thus the highest deathe rate.
No mystery here.

If it's only the elderly dying off naturally, then the birth rate should still exceed the death rate, all else being equal.

The fact that it doesn't suggests a much higher than average premature death rate.

The numbers don't appear to factor in emigration, either.