The U.S. fertility rate hit a record low in 2025, continuing a nearly two-decade decline as fewer women had children and many delayed starting families, according to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The general fertility rate fell by 1% from 2024 to 2025, marking a 23% decline since 2007. Approximately 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2025, down from a peak of 4.3 million in 2007.
Key Takeaways
The U.S. fertility rate hit a record low in 2025, continuing a nearly two-decade decline as fewer women had children and many delayed starting families.
- The general fertility rate fell by 1% from 2024 to 2025, marking a 23% decline since 2007.
- Approximately 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2025, down from a peak of 4.3 million in 2007.
- The fertility rate among women aged 15 to 44 was 53.1 births per 1,000, with significant drops among younger women and teens.
- Experts attribute the decline to economic factors, cultural influences, better access to education and contraception for women.
The fertility rate among women aged 15 to 44 was 53.1 births per 1,000, with significant drops among younger women and teens. The number of babies born in 2025 declined by 1% from the previous year, while the general fertility rate also slipped by 1%. This underscores a long-running shift in U.S. childbearing patterns, with declines among younger women continuing to outweigh gains at older ages.
The provisional data is based on 99.95% of all birth records received and processed last year by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC. The fertility rate among women aged 25 to 29 fell about 4.4%, while the rate for women aged 30 to 34 rose about 2.7%. Fertility rates among teenagers also declined sharply, with the rate for those aged 18 to 19 falling by 7% and the rate for younger teens aged 15 to 17 dropping by 11%, both reaching record lows.
The CDC's lead researcher Brady Hamilton noted that this trend is part of a long-running downward trajectory. Experts attribute the decline to economic factors, cultural influences, better access to education and contraception for women. The Congressional Budget Office reported earlier this year that these trends are likely to result in a rapidly aging population with fewer residents by 2055 than previously predicted.
The declining fertility rate has also sparked policy discussions around incentives for couples to have children. President Donald Trump's administration touted new guidance to increase access to IVF treatments as evidence of pro-natalist policies, although these steps have been paired with reductions in access to government healthcare and other social programs. Far-right politicians have used falling birth rates to promote narratives about demographic replacement by migrants from non-Western countries.
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