The US Baby Bust Is Holding Steady

America's baby bust isn't letting up. New federal data show the nation's fertility rate slipped again in 2025 to a new record low, extending a slide that's been underway since 2007, with a recent UN report pointing to various reasons, primarily financial. Births per 1,000 women of childbearing age nudged down to 53.1 from 53.8 in 2024, per the New York Times. That's 9% lower than in 2019 and 20% lower than 20 years ago, per CNN. Total births dipped 1% last year to about 3.6 million. The sharpest change is among teenagers: their fertility rate fell 7% in a year and is now 81% below its 1991 peak. "Women now have better control over their reproductive lives, so there's not as much unintended pregnancy as there used to be," Dr. Alison Gemmill of the UCLA School of Public Health tells CNN. Births are increasingly concentrated in a woman's 30s and 40s; rates for those 30 to 34 climbed 3% last year to 96.2 births per 1,000 women. Some experts see echoes of the 1970s, when fertility also sank below replacement level but women of childbearing age at that time ultimately ended up with roughly two children on average by their mid-40s. Others doubt today's prolonged delay can be fully offset, noting that nearly half of 30-year-old American women are now childless, up from 18% in 1976. Others say 2025's low population growth of 0.5% is primarily due to reduced immigration, per CNN.