The number of births in America in 2024 increased from 2023, but the fertility rate declined, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on July 24.
The fertility rate among females aged 15 to 44, on the other hand, declined by 1 percent in 2024 to 53.8 births per 1,000.
That’s down from 64.7 births per 1,000 females in that age group in 2010 and 118 per 1,000 females in the population in 1960.
The birth and fertility data are drawn in part from birth certificates and U.S. Census data.
Birth rates are generally declining for women in most age groups—and that doesn’t seem likely to change in the near future, said Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina.
People are marrying later and are also worried about their ability to have the money, health insurance, and other resources needed to raise children in a stable environment, said Guzzo, who described measures such as the newborn accounts as largely symbolic.
Women in the United States have been giving birth on average at older ages. In 2024, the birth rate for females aged 15 to 34 declined. The rate was the same among women aged 35 to 39, and went up for women aged 40 to 44, according to the CDC.
That was a change from provisional data released earlier in the year that had indicated birth rate increases for women in their late 20s and 30s.
CDC officials said it was due to recalculations stemming from a change in the Census population estimates used to compute the birth rate.