In 2018, about 3.7 million babies were born in the United States, a 2% decrease from 2017, according to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This holds true for all ethnic groups.
It is the greatest decline in the total number of births and national fertility rates in the last 32 years. On average, women are having two children, but they tend to have them later in life than women of previous generations. According to Hans-Peter Kohler, professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in fertility issues, the report does not suggest that American women are becoming less biologically fertile. The reason for this data is instead sociological: couples choose to delay starting a family either by choice or out of financial necessity. “At the moment, there is no reason to panic or consider these trends as overly dramatic”, says Hans-Peter Kohler, because the birth rate in the United States is keeping pace relatively well with the ageing rate of its population.
For further reading:
Declining birth rate: “Norway needs more children!”
Drop in US birth rate continues
Time, Jamie Ducharme (15/05/2019) – It May Not Be a Bad Thing Fewer U.S. Babies Were Born in 2018 Than in Any Year Since 1986