The U.S. fertility rate has reached a historic low, falling to just 1.6 children per woman in 2024, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That number places the U.S. well below the replacement level of 2.1 and continues a decades-long trend of declining fertility.
Experts point to a range of social and economic factors influencing the drop, including people delaying marriage and parenthood until later in life. Still, while the fertility rate is down, the total number of babies born in the U.S. actually ticked up slightly. In 2024, there were 3,628,934 births, about 1% more than the year before.
A closer look at the numbers shows that birth rates declined among women and girls ages 15–34, remained steady for women aged 35–39, and increased among women aged 40–44. Cesarean births also rose slightly during this time, increasing from 22.8% in 2023 to 22.9% in 2024.
In response to the falling fertility rate, former President Donald Trump’s administration has floated a number of policy proposals aimed at encouraging Americans to have more children. One such move was an executive order focused on lowering the cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility treatment that creates embryos outside the body and transfers them to the uterus.
Another proposal reportedly under consideration: so-called “baby bonuses,”a one-time $5,000 payment to mothers following childbirth.
But many demographers remain skeptical of such incentives. Despite their appeal, similar programs in other countries have largely failed to produce long-term increases in national birth rates.
Per a new report by the United Nations Population Fund, (UNFPA), fertility rates are at an “unprecedented decline,” not only in the U.S., but worldwide, and that has experts worried.
“The world has begun an unprecedented decline in fertility rates,” Dr Natalia Kanem, head of UNFPA, told the BBC in a previous interview. “Most people surveyed want two or more children. Fertility rates are falling in large part because many feel unable to create the families they want. And that is the real crisis.”
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