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.
Colleges nationwide turn to police to quell pro
Surging auto insurance rates squeeze drivers, fuel inflation
DEI bans: Conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum
Biden signs a $95 billion war aid measure with assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan
Why AP called the Pennsylvania 12th District primary for Summer Lee
Jogger is left terrified after hair
Struggled with 'I am not a robot' captchas lately? It's not just you... they're getting harder
Wisconsin prison inmate pleads not guilty to killing cellmate
Prince Louis wore Prince George's £25 hand
Missouri's GOP lawmakers vote to kick Planned Parenthood off Medicaid
Dairy cattle must be tested for bird flu before moving between states, agriculture officials say