U.S. Birth Rate Falls to All-Time Low

The U.S. birth rate has dropped to an all-time low, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report, via the National Center for Health Statistics’ “Births: Provisional Data for 2023,” presents data on births in the last year and shows the birth rate descending to record low levels.

Per the data, the provisional number of births for the United States was 3,591,328 in 2023, down two percent from the year prior. In 2022, that figure stood at 3,667,758 — a difference of 76,430 births.

This trend has been consistent over the years, however.

“The number of births declined by an average of 2% per year from 2015 to 2020, including a decline of 4% from 2019 to 2020, rose 1% from 2020 to 2021, and was essentially unchanged from 2021 to 2022,” according to the results.

The data provided the decline in the provisional number of births for different races as well, showing a five-percent decline for Indian and Alaska Native women, a four-percent decline for black women, a three-percent decline for white women, and a two-percent decline for Asian women.

“Births rose 1% for Hispanic women and were essentially unchanged for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander women,” the data found.

Overall, the data found the general fertility rate dropped three percent from 2022 to 2023, going from 56 births per thousand women aged 15 to 44 to 54.4 per thousand.

Further, the fertility rate for women 20-24 dropped four percent over the last year, three percent for those 25-29, two percent for those 30-34, and one percent for women 35-39.

The news coincides with Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed in 2023, which found that a quarter of 40-year-olds in the U.S. had never been married as of 2021. In comparison, in 1980, only six percent of 40-year-olds could say the same.

Bumble’s annual dating report released late 2023 also found that women are “no longer focused on adhering to traditional relationship timelines and milestones,” with only one in five “actively seeking out marriage” — the cornerstone of starting a family — as a goal.

Further, Pew Research Center also found that more than half of young adults 18-29 view open marriages as “acceptable.”