Washington, D.C. ? If it weren’t for Hispanic births, the U.S. could be confronting long-term population declines similar to those in Germany, Japan and other industrialized countries.

Hispanics are the only ethnic group now producing more than two children per family, according to a Census Bureau report released Monday. That’s the number necessary to replace the mother and father and keep the population stable.

“The Hispanic population is growing; whites and Asians are not replacing themselves,” said Jane Dye, the Census Bureau demographer who wrote the study.

More women in their early 40s are childless, the report also said, and those who are having children are having fewer than ever before.

In the last 30 years, the number of women age 40 to 44 with no children has doubled, from 10 percent to 20 percent. And those who are mothers have an average of 1.9 children each, more than one child fewer than women of the same age in 1976.