According to new data, the pace of babies being born in the United States has slowed once again, with fertility rates falling to a new historic low.
The data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which analyzed 2023 birth certificate data.
The report showed that last year’s slowdown marks an official end to the uptick in new babies that was sparked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, at least 3,591,328 babies were born, down 2% from 3,667,758 born in 2022.
The report said that the 2% decline is on par with annual declines that were observed before the pandemic when around 2% fewer babies were being born each year.
One of the authors of the report, the CDC’s Brady Hamilton, spoke with CBS News about their findings, sharing that there were signs the surge in pandemic babies was coming to an end.
“Last year, the difference was very small. This year, it’s something on the order of 74,000 or thereabouts. So it’s fairly large,” Hamilton told the outlet.
The CDC also calculates what it calls the total fertility rate, which calculates the average number of births that women will have during their lives. Last year’s number came out to 1,616.5 births per 1,000 women in the US.
The United States Census Bureau has estimated that the nation’s population is going to shrink unless that figure hits 2,1000 births per 1,000 women or 2.1 children per woman.
The return of falling birth rates falls in line with the trend that began in 1971, when there were fewer births than deaths, putting the country’s fertility rate below what it needs to be to replace the previous generation.
“Think about that in terms of the woman and her partner. So if you have a total fertility rate of two, you’re replacing him, and you’re replacing her in the population. It has to be 2.1 to compensate for mortality,” Hamilton told the outlet.
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