New CDC data shows U.S. birth rate remains near record low

Data released this week from the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics shows that the birth rate in the United States increased by just one percent in 2024. Despite the increase, the birthrate remains near the record-setting low of 2023.

In total, approximately 3.6 million babies were born in the United States last year, resulting in a birth rate of around 1.6 births per woman— far below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 births per woman.

According to the data, the fertility rate was highest among women in their early 30s, with more than 95 births for every 1,000 women ages 30 to 34, while teen births and births among women in their early 20s fell to record lows in 2024. There were fewer than 13 births for every 1,000 teen girls, a 3% drop from 2023.

In total, there was an increase of just 27,000 more births in 2024 than in 2023.

The data corresponds with information from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released in January, which projected that the U.S. population will be 372 million residents in 30 years — a 2.8% drop from last year’s projection of 383 million people. It also predicted that that annual deaths will outnumber annual births in less than 10 years.

READ: CDC Data: Despite slight drop, Black abortion rate still nearly twice as high as Black birth rate

Ken Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire, told The New York Times that the figures are “the continuation of a long-term decline of births in the United States that began really with the Great Recession in 2007.”

“One of the big questions is all these births that haven’t occurred — are they just being delayed?” Johnson said. “Are these women going to have these babies later than they would have otherwise? Or are a lot of these births going to be forgone entirely?”

While mainstream media points to factors like the reduction in teen pregnancy rates and a bad economy as reasons why the birth rate is plummeting, no mention is made of the fact that there are an average of  2,844 preborn children killed in the United States each day — a figure that is believed to be an underestimation. Were these babies allowed to survive, there would over one million additional births to add to the reporting data.

A country that does not value the lives of its most vulnerable preborn citizens should not be surprised when the culture of death has widespread ramifications.