The fertility rate in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in nearly a century as fewer and fewer women are giving birth.

Provisional data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday show that the total fertility rate fell to 1.62 births per woman in 2023, a 2% decline from 2022 and the lowest rate since the government began recording the metric in the 1930s.

In 2023, there were only 3.6 million babies born in the United States, equating to 54.4 live births for every 1,000 females of reproductive age, between 15 and 44.

“We’ve certainly had larger declines in the past. But decline fits the general pattern,” Brady Hamilton, statistician with the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of the report, told reporters on Thursday.

The decline is reflective of a growing trend of women delaying or forgoing having children in part due to economic and social challenges.

The total fertility rate is a rough estimate of the number of children a woman would give birth to in her lifetime, but the statistic does not take into account what women actually decide to do.

Population data scientists identify a total fertility rate of 2.1 births per woman as the “replacement rate.” When the fertility rate drops below 2.1, demographers grow concerned that, over time, the overall population will grow older and shrink.

The rate peaked in 1956 during the baby boom following World War II, with a rate of nearly four births per woman. During the 1960s, the total fertility rate fell precipitously, hovering around the replacement rate until the global economic crisis in 2008.

Age also plays a critical role in recent birth trends.

Women in their mid-to-late 30s are having children at similar rates to those in their early 20s, with each having birth rates close to 55 births per 1,000. Birth rates for women between the ages of 20 and 24 dropped by 4% in 2023.

Although birth rates for women between the ages of 15 and 19 continued their decadeslong decline, they fell just 3% last year, lower than the average 7% annual decline researchers recorded between 2007 and 2022. (Source: The Washington Examiner)

Story Date: April 26, 2024