We were born, we got married, we died

In 2002 in Utah, 49,140 babies were born and 13,042 people died. And while 24,121 couples tied the knot, another 9,510 came untied, opting for divorce or annulment. Boy babies outnumber girl babies at a ratio of 104.8 males per 100 females.

The annual portrait of Utah vital statistics, with more than 100 pages of information on milestones like births and deaths, disease and divorce, was released this week by the Utah Department of Health. It's available online at www.health.utah.gov/vitalrecords.

Nearly one-fourth of those who died in 2002 succumbed to heart disease, while almost one in five were killed by cancer.

Besides the most recent annual information, the report contains some key numbers dating back to 1940, including births and deaths, maternal deaths, infant mortality, fetal deaths, marriages, divorces and annulments. Even then, births outpaced deaths nearly threefold. In 1940, when the estimated population for the state was around 552,000 — it's now 2.338 million — 13,347 babies were born and 4,845 Utahns died.

In those six-plus decades, the most dramatic change has occurred in maternal deaths, which have dropped from that year's 36 to last year's two. Although the number of babies born in a year has increased 10-fold over the decades, half as many infants died last year as in 1940.

As for how we die, after heart disease and cancer, leading causes of death, in order, are stroke, accidental deaths, chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia (which are classed together), suicide, Alzheimer's and kidney disease. That "top 10" was the same in 2001, as well.

Utah's fertility rate is 91.2 percent per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. The national birthrate is 64.8 per 1,000 women.

Some other findings:

• Davis County babies were healthier than those in other parts of the state, with an infant mortality rate in Davis of 2.7, half that of the state overall.

• Of the 52,687 pregnancies during the year, 49,140 infants were born alive, there were 247 fetal deaths and 3,300 abortions.

• Close to 8,400 babies were born to unwed mothers.

• The national low birth weight rate is 7.8 per 1,000; in Utah that number is 6.6.

Besides being available online, the full report is available at the state's depository libraries at universities and in the public library system.

---

E-mail: lois@desnews.com