Report: US Birth Rate Hits Record Low with Lowest Birth Rates in the Past 30 Years
The United States birth rate hit a record low in 2018 with numbers reflecting the lowest birth rates in the past 30 years, reports say.
A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the U.S. 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 percent since 2017.
For every 1,000 women, the fertility rate declined 2 percent 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 NCHS processed, but the agency 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,” report author Brady Hamilton said, 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 reported.
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 percent rise in birth rates, while women aged 40 to 44 experienced a birth rate rise of 2 percent.
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 percent since 2017 with 17.4 births for every 1,000 teenage women.
The results were the same for both the younger (ages 15 to 17) and older (ages 18 to 19) teenage women who were evaluated.
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