the birth rate at its lowest in more than a century

The fertility rate has been trending downward in the United States for decades. It decreased again in 2023.

About 3.6 million births took place last year in the United States. This is a drop of 2% compared to 2022, when 3.7 million babies were born. These are the numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Since 1971, the birth rate has generally been below the replacement threshold, that is to say the level of fertility necessary for a generation to renew itself. In 2023 we return to the low levels before the pandemic. The birth rate had experienced a small increase of 1% between 2020 and 2021, at the time of Covid and the confinements decreed to stem the epidemic.

In detail, the birth rate has fallen in most age groups, with a continued decline among adolescents: 13.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19.

End of the right to abortion and economic context

This decrease can be explained by several factors: firstly the debt of students, who have to repay expensive studies for a long time. The high cost of housing, too, and economic uncertainty, which does not encourage younger generations to have children.

Recent court decisions concerning birth control and the end of the right to abortion at the federal level have also played a role. States that ban abortion already have some of the worst maternal health outcomes and poverty rates in the United States, two key factors in determining birth rates.