Birth rates smile into record lows, reports CDC

Births in the United States rose by only 1 percent in 2024, still near the record rates that alerted demographers and are a central component of the Trump management cultural agent. This emerges from data published on Wednesday by the centers for the control and prevention of diseases.

Last year, more than 3.6 million babies were born in the United States, a lean increase compared to the record according to the record in 2023. The fertility rate, about 1.6 births per woman, is far below the 2.1 births that are necessary to maintain the country's population solely by births.

The new data is “the continuation of a long -term decline in births in the United States, which really began in 2007 with the great recession,” said Ken Johnson, demograph at the University of New Hampshire.

These numbers and the reasons why they have experienced such a consistent decline are widely seen as a problem that could influence the US economy in the coming decades, since fewer young workers support a growing aging population.

President Trump has asked for a “baby boom” that joins a conservative “pronatalist” movement that aims to persuade more Americans from getting married and getting many babies.

Vice President JD Vance and others in the pronatalistic movement have criticized childless young Americans and argue that they contribute to the potential collapse of the US population due to their contempt for nuclear families and traditional gender roles.

The decline is partly due to a remarkable shift in the birth: a large part of the long -term trend can be attributed to the significant reduction in pregnancies in teenage age in recent decades.

In 1991, the most recent national summit among teenagers, 61.8 births took place per 1,000 to 19-year-old, but this number had dropped to 12.7 births by 2024.

In the 1990s and in the 2000s, the fertility rate in the United States was around two children per woman, roughly at the level that was necessary to maintain the population solely by births, said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, a family debate at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

However, these figures were actually supported by the high rate of pregnancies of teenagers, which distinguished the United States from the nations in Europe and Asia, which already deal with the fertility rates under the replacement levels without the high pregnancies of teenagers.

“We were really unique, embarrassing,” said Dr. Guzzo.

From 2000, the extended access to contraception slowly contributed to reducing the rate of unintentional pregnancies and pregnancies in teenage age, which have continued to decrease since then.

But since the great recession, birth rates have fallen in another group: women in the 20s. In 2007 there were 106.3 births per 1,000 to 24 year olds, but these figures had dropped to 56.7 by 2024. The highest birth rate in 2007 was among 25 to 29 year olds with 117.5 births per 1,000 women; These figures fell to 91.4 in 2024.

These declines were not identified by similar increases in women in women in the thirties.

“One of the big questions are all of these births that have not occurred – are they just delayed?” Dr. Johnson said. “Will these women have these babies later than usual? Or will many of these births be completely avoided?”

The latest data seem to indicate that at least some people do without having children as a whole, said Dr. Johnson and added: “The births in older women have risen a little, but not enough to compensate for all the births that have not occurred.”

But in surveys, many young Americans still say that they want two children. While the shift in the settings may play in the decline in the birth of a birth, demographers indicate the increasing number of obstacles with which people who may want to found families are exposed to.

Economic conditions debt of the students, no state-of-the-state family vacation, the high costs for childcare and home ownership outside of the device and a general feeling of instability in the world are likely to play a major role in the postponement of parents of the Americans of parenthood, said Dr. Guzzo.

“People have no children if they don't feel good with their own future, ”she said.

A number of suggestions that are discussed in the Trump government to give the Americans incentives for more babies includes the increasing financing of parts of the country with above-average birth and marriage rates, the new mothers with $ 5,000 for “baby bonus” and increasing prestigious Fulbright scholarships for people with married or have increased children.

While some of these ideas have been supported by Democrats who have long argued for more help for working families, it is doubtful that one -off interventions will actually increase the birth rate sensibly, experts said.

And it is unlikely that an increased fertility rate alone is the population profit that is necessary to regain the replacement level, said Dr. Johnson.

“Of course, immigration is another factor,” he added. Most immigrants are young and move to found families. “Immigrants don't just bring themselves,” he said. “You will bring out the potential for babies in the future.”