Birthrates Languish in Record Lows, C.D.C. Reports
Births in the United States increased by just 1 percent in 2024, still near the record low rates that have alarmed demographers and become a central part of the Trump administration’s cultural agenda, according to data released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 3.6 million babies were born in the United States last year, a meager rise from the record-setting low in 2023. The fertility rate, approximately 1.6 births per woman over her lifetime, is well below the 2.1 births needed to maintain the country’s population through births alone. The new data represent “the continuation of a long-term decline of births in the United States that began really with the Great Recession in 2007,” said Ken Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire. These numbers, and the reasons that they have experienced such a […]
