Women in the United States are having fewer children, with the country’s birth rate falling to an almost record low last year, preliminary data show.
Roughly 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024, according to a vital statistics rapid release report recently published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That marks a 1 percent increase from the record low number of births in 2023.
The U.S. birth rate has steadily declined since the Great Recession in 2007, with a slight bump in births occurring in 2021, according to CDC data.
The data also show that older women are continuing to have more children, with the report showing the birth rate of women 30-34 increased by 1 percent between 2023 and 2024.
The birth rate of women 35-39 also went up 1 percent during that time, and the birth rate of women 40-44 increased by 2 percent.
Meanwhile, the birth rate among women 25-29 went up by less than 1 percent last year, and the birth rate of women in their early 20s declined by 2 percent.
The drop in the U.S. birth rate has caused some within the Trump administration to sound the alarm about the perceived dangers of falling global birth rates.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and key adviser to President Trump, shared his concerns over the country’s falling birth rate and declining birth rates abroad during an interview on Fox News earlier this week.
“The birth rate is very low in almost every country, and unless that changes, civilization will disappear,” he said.
The Trump administration has considered implementing new policies to incentivize American women to have more children, including giving out $5,000 in cash to women after giving birth and reserving 30 percent of Fulbright program scholarships for applicants who are married with children.
Trump suggested to reporters Tuesday that he supports the idea of giving mothers money after delivering a child.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he said.
