DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Even though Iowa’s economy is improving, the state’s birth rate isn’t keeping pace. Iowa Department of Public Health figures show the state’s birth rate for 2013 is up less than 1 percent over 2012, The Des Moines Register reported. The 2013 numbers are still nearly 5 percent lower than the birth rate in 2007, before the economy slumped. There were 39,013 babies born in 2013, compared with 38,686 in 2012 and 40,835 in 2007.

Similar numbers are being reported elsewhere in the country, which experts say is typical during recessions. People apparently have fewer babies because they’re less confident they can support growing families.

Birth rates tend to rebound eventually, but how long it will take is tough to pinpoint, said Gretchen Livingston of the Pew Research Center. The nation’s fertility rate, the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, was at an all-time low in 2013, though it was a bit higher in Iowa than the nation as a whole.

The decline in Iowa births includes a decrease in the number of babies born to teen mothers, which state public health officials say is a victory.  University of Iowa economics professor Alice Schoonbroodt suspects the birth rate will increase more soon, but she’s less confident than she was a year or two ago.  “The longer we go with no change, the more we’re led to believe it’s something permanent,” she said.