NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births fell last year, resuming a long national slide.
A little under 3.6 million babies were born in 2023, according to provisional statistics released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s about 76,000 fewer than the year before and the lowest one-year tally since 1979.
U.S. births were slipping for more than a decade before COVID-19 hit, then dropped 4% from 2019 to 2020. They ticked up for two straight years after that, an increase experts attributed, in part, to pregnancies that couples had put off amid the pandemic’s early days.
But “the 2023 numbers seem to indicate that bump is over and we’re back to the trends we were in before,” said Nicholas Mark, a University of Wisconsin researcher who studies how social policy and other factors influence health and fertility.
Birth rates have long been falling for teenagers and younger women, but rising for women in their 30s and 40s — a reflection of women pursuing education and careers before trying to start families, experts say. But last year, birth rates fell for all women younger than 40, and were flat for women in their 40s.
Aaron Judge homers 1 pitch after Joe Boyle is called for a balk as Yanks top A's 7
City in E China's Anhui transforms abandoned mining site into thriving tent hotel
China pledges efforts to combat lawyer misconduct
Divisive? Not for moviegoers. ‘Civil War’ declares victory at box office.
Hannah Waddingham looks incredible in pink tweed co
China issues yellow alert for blizzards
10 major criminal suspects transferred back to China from Myanmar
Xinjiang braces for more passenger train suspensions amid extreme weather
The US is now allowed to seize Russian state assets. How would that work?
Power transmission lines maintained in Shennongjia to alleviate snow impacts