Recent official data indicates that the fertility rate in America has reached a new all-time low, marking the third year in a row of decline.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released provisional statistics revealing that the general fertility rate fell to 53.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2025. This is a decrease from 53.8 the previous year.

This represents a one percent decline over the past year and highlights a 23 percent drop since 2007, when the fertility rate hit a recent high of 69.3.

In 2025, the number of births was approximately 3.6 million, reflecting a one percent reduction from 2024 and a significant 16 percent decrease from the 4.3 million births recorded in 2007.

Experts speaking to the Daily Mail described the statistics as telling a ‘striking story,’ emphasizing that more women are choosing to delay starting families.

The downtrend in America’s fertility rate has been ongoing since 2007. Initially, experts attributed this to the economic challenges of the 2008 Great Recession, which led many to postpone having children due to financial uncertainty.

But even as the economy initially rebounded, the decline continued.

Experts say continued economic and financial instability, as well as an increased focus on schooling and career have led people to delay having children, have fewer children or not have children at all.

In the CDC’s release, the provisional data suggested that the fertility rate’s decline was driven by a drop in the number of teenage pregnancies. It also showed that more women are having children later.

Among those aged 15 to 19 years, births dropped seven percent in 2025 to 11.7 per 1,000 women in the age group. Among those aged 18 to 19 years, they fell 11 percent to 21.9.

Among women aged 20 to 24, births dipped six percent to 52.5. 

Women aged 25 to 29 experienced the fourth-largest drop, four percent, to 85.6 births.

But for those aged 30 to 34 years, who had the highest fertility rate overall, births ticked up three percent to 96.2 births per 1,000 women in that age group. 

Among 35- to 39-year-olds, they rose two percent to 55.1.

There was also a record-high fertility rate among women aged 40 to 44 – 12.8 births per 1,000 women, up one percent from 2024.

For 45- to 49-year-olds, births remained at their record high for the age group of 1.1.

Dr Elizabeth Cherot, the chief medical officer at Unified Women’s Healthcare, told Daily Mail: ‘This week’s CDC data tells a striking story.

‘There were roughly 710,000 fewer babies born in the US last year compared with the peak in 2007, a decline in the general fertility rate in less than two decades. That’s a fundamental shift in how Americans are thinking about family.’

Provisional CDC data shows that Americans are having fewer children (stock image)

She added: ‘The broader fertility decline is complex.

‘Women aren’t having fewer children in a vacuum. They’re making deeply personal decisions shaped by economic pressures, career considerations and questions about the kind of support they’ll have if they do choose to start a family.’

The CDC has yet to release its total fertility rate estimate for 2025, or the number of children per woman.

For a population to remain stable, this should be at 2.1 children per woman. 

In 2024, it was 1.6 children per woman. It has been below the replacement threshold since 2007.

Polling in recent years has indicated that the proportion of adults who say they never want to have children has grown, while many couples plan to have fewer children than in previous generations.

A Pew Research Center study published last year found that, on average, men and women aged 20 to 39 years planned to have 1.8 children. In 2012, the figure was 2.3.

Overall, about three-quarters of men and women said that they planned to have at least one child.

That was down from about 90 percent in 2012. 

Political leaders are warning of dire consequences if the population decline continues. 

The White House proposed offering a $5,000 ‘baby bonus’ to every US mother after she gives birth and President Donald Trump has worked to make the fertility treatment in vitro fertilization more affordable to make it accessible to people who want to have children. 

Elon Musk – who has 14 children with four different women – called the decline ‘the biggest threat to civilization’ and has warned it ‘will lead to mass extinction of entire nations.’

Vice President JD Vance has also claimed that ‘our people aren’t having enough children to replace themselves.

‘That should bother us.’