US birthrate now lowest in 32 years

The US birthrate is so low that the nation is "below replacement levels", meaning more people die every day than are being born.

US birth and fertility rates fell by 4 percent last year, the largest decline in nearly 50 years, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, said in May.

About 3.6 million babies were born in the United States last year, down from about 3.75 million in 2019, data from the CDC showed.

Nationwide, births fell in 2020 for the sixth consecutive year to the lowest level since 1979. When births were booming in 2007, the country recorded 4.3 million.

The rate dropped for women of every major race and ethnicity. The number of births fell 8 percent for Asian Americans, the highest decline among all ethnicities. Birthrates fell 4 percent for black and white women, 3 percent for Hispanic women and 6 percent for American Indians or Alaska Natives.

There was speculation that as the US went into lockdown because of the pandemic, the lack of things to do and places to go would lead to a recovery in the birthrate. But the new data show the opposite occurred. Health experts say that the anxiety about COVID-19 and its impact on the economy likely caused many couples to postpone or think twice about having a child.

Births were down most sharply at the end of the year when babies conceived at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic would have been born. Births declined by about 8 percent in December compared with December 2019, the CDC said. December had the largest decline of any month.

The general fertility rate in the US was already at a record low before the pandemic began. Birthrates began to decline in 2008 after rising to their highest level in two decades.

A variety of factors have driven down the rate. The rates have dropped as women marry later and delay motherhood. The average age of mothers when they first give birth in 2019 was 27, while the mean age was 23 in 2010, CDC data showed.

"If you're not having your first child until you're 37 or 38, you have less time to have a big family," said James Stelling, a physician in obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Advanced Specialty Care, a Stony Brook Medicine facility, in New York.

"If you don't have an unplanned pregnancy at 21, you don't have your third at 25. It's the decline of the mega family," he said.

The decrease might reflect the lingering effects of the Great Recession that officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. The financial crisis appeared to accelerate the underlying long-term trend of people choosing to have smaller families or not have children at all.

The CDC also found an inverse correlation between educational attainment and the age of new mothers and the number of babies they have.

Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.