US Births Fell Last Year to Lowest Total Since 1979, Report Says
- Birth rate for younger women falls to record low in US
- Economic doubts discourage planning for babies: researcher
The US saw a slight uptick in birth rates before the 2008 credit crunch, but they’ve declined overall by 11% since 2000.
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US births declined in 2023 to their lowest level in more than 40 years, continuing a two-decade trend of Americans having fewer children.
Total births for the year fell 2% to 3.59 million, according to preliminary data released Thursday from the US National Center for Health Statistics, a level not seen since 1979, when about 3.4 million US babies were born. The rate of US women of child-bearing age having babies is the lowest since the center began compiling statistics, said Brady Hamilton, an NCHS demographer and lead author of the report.