Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. fertility rate dropped to its lowest level in U.S. history, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics said in a new report that the final data from 2023 showed the fertility rate declining by 3 percent from the year prior, to 54.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 44.
That’s the lowest rate on record.
The rate was 56 births per 1,000 females in 2022 and 56.3 births per 1,000 females in 2021.
When asked by The Epoch Times why its experts believe the fertility rate has dropped so low, the CDC declined to answer.
The number of births also dropped from 3.66 million in 2022 to 3.59 million in 2023, according to the report. That’s the lowest number since 1979.
The peak was in 2007, when 4.3 million births were recorded.
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that many adults who are childless say they will not ever have children, with reasons including just not wanting to, desiring to focus on other parts of life such as careers, and inability to afford the cost of raising children.
The CDC report utilized data from a national system that includes birth certificates.
Researchers found that the birth rates for teenagers declined, continuing a pattern seen in recent years. The birth rate for teenagers aged 15 to 17 dropped slightly, from 5.6 births per 1,000 girls to 5.5 births per 1,000 girls, and the birth rate for teenagers aged 18 to 19 dropped to 24.6 births per 1,000 girls, down from 25.8 births per 1,000 girls.
The researchers also found that the percentage of infants born preterm, or before the 37th week of pregnancy, was 10.4 percent in 2023, which was about the same as in 2022.
The numbers are largely the same as provisional data the CDC published in April but are now finalized.
Preliminary numbers for 2024 are expected in the spring.
CDC researchers combing through the data also found that more women are choosing not to see doctors after they become pregnant, particularly in the early weeks.
The percentage of women declining prenatal care in the first semester grew from 1 percent to 34 percent, according to the data.
The percentage of mothers who received no prenatal care also increased to 2.3 percent, up from 2.2 percent in 2022 and 2.1 percent in 2021.
Still, researchers did see that more pregnant women started prenatal care in the second trimester, with 16.9 percent of women doing so in 2023 compared to 16.3 percent in 2022. Additionally, more pregnant women began prenatal care in the third trimester, with 4.7 percent of women doing so after 4.6 percent of women did so in 2022.