The U.S. fertility rate dropped to an all-time low to 1.6 children per woman in 2024, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The country’s fertility rate has been declining for decades, in part, because of people waiting to get married and have children until later in life.
While the fertility rate had dipped, the overall number of births in the U.S. went up last year compared to the year, increasing by 1 percent or 3,628,934 births.
Fertility rates declined for women and girls ages 15 to 34 between 2023 and 2024 and remained unchanged for women ages 35 to 39 and rose for women ages 40 to 44, the data show.
Cesarean births increased slightly during that time, rising from 22.8 percent in 2023 to 22.9 percent the following year.
The Trump administration has responded to the nation’s declining fertility rate by considering various policies aimed at increasing the number of children born in the U.S.
Trump issued an executive order aimed at lowering the cost of in vitro fertilization, a medical procedure that combines sperm with a woman’s egg outside the body to create an embryo, which is then transferred back into the uterus.
The White House also considered a policy in which mothers would be given $5,000 “baby bonuses” after giving birth.
Demographers doubt that “baby bonuses” would bump up the country’s birth rate, since similar policies have failed to do so in other nations struggling with low fertility rates.
