Final government data shows U.S. births fell 2% last year compared to 2022, continuing a decades-long decline.
Overall, annual birth rates in the U.S. have fallen 17% since their peak in 2007, according to the new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall fertility rate (births per 1,000 women) also fell by 21% during that period, the report found.
Births to women in their teens (ages 15 to 19) are part of this trend, declining 4% between 2022 and 2023, says a team led by Joyce Martin of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) .
A total of 3,596,017 births were registered in the United States last year, compared to 3,667,758 the year before.
Other CDC birth data shows that fewer pregnant women received adequate care in 2023 than in 2022.
The number of women who received prenatal care during their first trimester decreased by 1%, and the percentage who received no prenatal care at all increased by 5%, continuing the trend noted between 2021 and 2022.
“The rates of late care and no care have steadily increased since 2016,” Martin’s team said in the report.
About 10.4% of births were premature in 2023; approximately the same as in 2022. Preterm birth (during the 37th and 38th week of pregnancy) increased by 2%.
“Since the most recent low point in 2014, preterm birth rates have increased by 9% and preterm birth rates by 21%, while full-term, late-term and postnatal births have decreased,” the NCHS team wrote.
The new findings were published August 20 as one NCHS Data Summary.
More information:
Joyce Martin et al, Births in the United States, 2023, NCHS Data Summary (2024). DOI: 10.15620/cdc/158789
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