US births declined in 2023 to their lowest level in more than 40 years, continuing a two-decade trend of Americans having fewer children.
Total births for the year fell 2% to 3.59 million, according to preliminary data released Thursday from the US National Center for Health Statistics, a level not seen since 1979, when about 3.4 million US babies were born. The rate of US women of child-bearing age having babies is the lowest since the center began compiling statistics, said Brady Hamilton, an NCHS demographer and lead author of the report.