US Fertility Rate Hits All-Time Low: 700,000 Fewer Babies Born Than the 2007 Peak

# US Fertility Rate Hits All-Time Low: 700,000 Fewer Babies Born Than the 2007 Peak

> **Quick answer:** The US fertility rate hit its lowest recorded level in 2025, with just 3.6 million births and a rate of 53.1 births per 1,000 women of reproductive age — down 23% from 2007's peak. The decline is being driven primarily by women under 30, a collapse in teen birth rates, and a sharp rise in women in their mid-to-late 20s who have not yet had children. Experts describe it as widespread delay, not rejection, of parenthood — but the long-term economic and demographic consequences are already reshaping projections for Social Security and GDP growth.

The US fertility rate just broke a record that nobody wanted to break. New provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released in April 2026, confirms the US fertility rate hit its lowest point ever recorded in 2025 — continuing a two-decade slide that has now produced roughly 700,000 fewer births per year than the country saw at its 2007 peak. Here is what the data shows, why it is happening, and what it means for the country's future.

## What the CDC Data Actually Shows

The headline number: approximately 3.6 million babies were born in the US in 2025. That is the total birth count. But the key measure demographers watch is the **general fertility rate** — births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 — which dropped to **53.1** in 2025, down from 53.8 in 2024. That is a 1% single-year decline, and it marks the continuation of a trend that has been running almost without interruption since 2007.

Put the long view in perspective: the fertility rate is now roughly **23% lower than it was 18 years ago**. In absolute terms, that translates to approximately 700,000 fewer babies born per year compared to the 2007 peak — a staggering gap that compounds year after year in population terms.