The fertility rate for women ages 15 to 50 also stayed lower than before the start of the recession, with 54 births per thousand women in that age group. That was unchanged from 2011 and down from 58 in 2008, the first full year of the recession.

Lower birth rates have long been tied to economic distress, with declines also seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recession in the early 1970s. Typically in these economic situations couples put off marriage or childbearing because of a lost job or concern about losing one and lowered income, resulting in fewer births.

When there are fewer jobs to go around, more people also tend to head for college and graduate school, as a way of putting off their job searches. That continued in 2012, with about 23.9 million Americans enrolled in higher education. That was essentially unchanged from the previous year, though well above the 20.8 million recorded in 2007.

American Mobility

Reflecting the improving housing market, one area of modest gains captured in the ACS is the mobility of Americans. Many hunkered down during the recession and didn’t move to find work or better jobs because declining values for their homes left them unwilling to sell.

“In 2012, the volume of domestic migration in the U.S reached the highest level in five years,” wrote Ken Johnson, a senior demographer with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, in an analysis of the new data. “The 2012 ACS suggests a modest increase in migration between 2011 and 2012 continuing an upward trend from a low point in 2010.”

Johnson said almost 16.9 million people moved between counties in 2012, up 1.1 percent from 2011. Migration between states accounted for 7.1 million of these moves, up almost 5 percent from two years ago.

“In some states, hard hit by the recession, migration gains are increasing from the minimal gains or outright losses of the recession,” Johnson wrote.

Florida Wins

He cited Florida, saying it gained migrants from other states for the fourth straight year after two years of unprecedented migration loss during the recession. The net increase of about 109,000 residents from other states was 77 percent greater than in 2011 and was the largest migration gain in seven years.