BUFFALO (WKBW) A study by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health found that over the last decade, New York State had the largest numeric drop in population of children under 10, down more than 270,000.
Mark Mather is a Demographer for the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, DC.
"It is true that the population of children is stagnating and declining in many places across the country, but New York is one of the places we are seeing the biggest declines," he said.
Experts believe the drop has a lot to do with a perfect storm of sorts; people having fewer children, the so-called "brain drain" of college grads out of Western New York, a bad economy, and less immigration. All that means a smaller, older, non-child bearing population is left behind.
"Without that kind of growth you have an older, stagnating, or declining population. And once you start to decline it can be very difficult to put a place on a path to population growth again," Mather added.
Here in buffalo, experts see a small trend delivering different numbers. Just last year, Sisters Hospital saw a record number of births.
"We have been so busy here. Sisters Hospital is a baby boom, we have over 3200 deliveries last year," Dr. Judine Davis said.
And with new development in the area on the waterfront, the medical campus, and more the Mayor believes Buffalo's population will bounce back.
"We want young people to realize the great potential and possibilities that this city has to offer, and to make the decision themselves that this is where they want to stay," Mayor Brown said.
This study was done using state-wide numbers, so even with the spike in births at Sisters, experts say the numbers balance themselves out and the state continues to see decline in childhood numbers.
