US FERTILITY RATE HIT RECORD LOW OF 53.1 BIRTHS PER 1,000
The U.S. logged a record low birth rate in 2025 as younger women had fewer babies, CDC data showed.
The CDC released its provisional birth data on April 9, 2026, putting the general fertility rate at 53.1 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. CNN described that as the lowest rate on record.
Total births also slipped from the year before, and the CDC’s provisional report said the rate has generally declined for years.
Epidemiologist Alison Gemmill said the answer is not to chase the number itself. “Instead of targeting the rate itself, we should frame it as a person-forward approach,” she told CNN.
Who is having fewer babies
Birth rates rose among women 30 and older, but not enough to offset sharper drops among women younger than that, CNN reported.
Reuters reported the rate for women in their late 20s fell while the rate for women in their early 30s rose.
Teens set their own record. The CDC said the teen fertility rate hit a record low for that age group, falling for both younger and older teens.
Gemmill pointed to better control over reproductive lives as one reason. “Women now have better control over their reproductive lives, so there’s not as much unintended pregnancy as there used to be,” she said.
She added that the share of women who stay childless through the end of their reproductive years has not yet changed significantly because of delayed pregnancy.
Why people are waiting
People in the U.S. are marrying later and less often, CNN reported, and partnership patterns shape when families start.
Reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Sigal Klipstein said many of her patients want kids but are waiting on the right partner, family situation or financial security. “The largest group is women who said they haven’t found the appropriate partner and don’t want to have children alone,” she told CNN.
CNN also reported that climate change, the economy, artificial intelligence and health care quality are weighing on prospective parents.
Klipstein said IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies have helped people plan families, but age is still the key factor in fertility. “It’s really important for people in general, not just women, to know what happens to fertility over age and what things impact fertility so that they can make decisions,” she said.
Birth rates have been a running theme for us, including when the birth rate for women 40-44 topped teens.
What it could mean for the economy
Pantheon Macroeconomics chief U.S. economist Samuel Tombs said a lower birth rate could become a medium-term drag on economic growth. “Any dropoff in the birth rate obviously has very little short-term implications for the economy,” he told CNN.
Tombs said U.S. population growth slowed sharply in 2025, with the drop led primarily by immigration.
CNN reported that the Trump administration’s pronatalist movement has gained momentum, alongside policy moves aimed at encouraging people to have more children.
The birth rate is also a factor in Social Security’s long-range finances. The program’s trustees forecast it would take until 2050 for the total fertility rate to reach 1.9 children per woman, a decade later than the previous estimate, CNN reported.
