(NewsNation) — The fertility rate in the U.S. dropped to an all-time low in 2024 with less than 1.6 kids per woman, new federal data released Thursday shows.
The U.S. once had a rate that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself — about 2.1 kids per woman, but it has been sliding in America for close to two decades.
The Trump administration has taken steps to address falling birth rates, like issuing an executive order meant to expand access to and reduce costs of in vitro fertilization and backing the idea of “baby bonuses” that might encourage more couples to have kids.
Demographers doubt that “baby bonuses” would bump up the country’s birth rate, since similar policies have failed to do so in other nations.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the statistics for the total fertility rate with updated birth data for 2024.
In the early 1960s, the U.S. total fertility rate was around 3.5, but it plummeted to 1.7 by 1976 after the Baby Boom ended. It gradually rose to 2.1 in 2007 before falling again, aside from a 2014 uptick. The rate in 2023 was 1.621, and inched down in 2024 to 1.599, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.