US births fell in 2023 to lowest level in more than four decades
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Americans have been putting off parenthood because of sky-high health costs for themselves and their children, Ms Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at the Ohio State University.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - US births declined in 2023 to the lowest level in more than 40 years, continuing a decades-long trend towards smaller American families.
Total births for the year fell to 3.596 million, a 2 per cent decline from 2022, according to a report released on March 18 by the US National Centre for Health Statistics that confirms preliminary data published in 2024.
Births have been declining globally as political instability and uncertainty discourage people from having children. Earlier in March, the European Union said 2023 births dropped to 3.6 million – a 5 per cent rate of decline not seen in more than six decades. In China in 2024, 9.5 million babies were born, the second-lowest number since the nation’s establishment in 1949.
Americans have been putting off parenthood because of sky-high health costs for themselves and their children, according to Ms Sarah Hayford, director of the Institute for Population Research at Ohio State University. General political, economic and even climate uncertainty have also contributed to the delays, she said in an interview.
“When people are worried about the future, they often put off having children,” she said.
US women of child-bearing age saw declining or unchanged birth rates in various age groups in 2023, also following recent trends. Large drops seen among women aged 15 to 24 were likely due to prioritising education over parenthood, Ms Hayford added.
The average age for a first-time mother was 27.5 years, a record high for the US, the report said.
Teen birth rates declined by 4 per cent from 2022 and have sunk by 68 per cent since 2007, the researchers said.
The total fertility rate was 1.6 births per woman – a pace that has generally declined since 2008 by 2 per cent each year, meaning the US will have to rely on immigration to sustain current population levels.
The report from the NCHS, a unit of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, is based on birth certificate data. BLOOMBERG
