The United States Had Fewer Babies This Year Than In The Past 30 Years: Report

The United States birth rate hit a record low in 2018 with numbers reflecting the lowest birthrates in the past 30 years, reports say.

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that almost every age group of women under 35 showed birth rate declines in 2018. The provisional number of births in the U.S. in 2018 was 3,788,235, down 2% since 2017. For every 1,000 women, the fertility rate declined 2% from 2017 to 1,728.0 births.

Birth rates had reached a record low in 2017 as well, marking a continuing trend of declining birth rates over the past four years, according to CNN.

The report is based on birth certificate information in 2018 which the National Center for Health Statistics processed, but the National Center for Health Statistics is not able to explain why birth rates are declining.

“Even though the number of births we’ve seen in 2018 is the lowest that we’ve seen in 32 years, the total fertility rate is at a record low,” said report author Brady Hamilton, according to CNN.

These 2018 birth rate numbers are below the necessary threshold needed for population replacement, which is 2,100 births per 1,000 women, CNN reports.

The report revealed that while birth rates declined for women under 35, birth rates actually increased for women over 35.  Women from ages 35 to 39 experienced a 1% rise in birth rates, while women aged 40 to 44 the birth experienced a birth rate rise in 2%. Birth rates for women above 45 remained the same since 2017.

Teen pregnancy has declined as well, the report reveals. Birth rates for teenagers aged 15 to 19 decreased by 7% since 2017 with 17.4 births for every 1,000 teenage women. The results were the same for both younger (15 to 17) teenage women and older (18 to 19) teenage women evaluated.