US birth rate falls to record low amid global decline

The US birth rate fell to a record low last year amid a global decline in the number of people having children.

Fewer than 3.6 million babies were born in the US last year, the smallest yearly tally since 1979 and the lowest fertility rate – the number of children born per woman – ever recorded.

The figures ended a brief baby boom brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, US birth rates had been falling by about 2 per cent every year.

The trend was briefly reversed in 2021 and 2022, possibly because people had postponed their plans to have children when the pandemic first hit.

It was theorised that the shift to remote working and the prospect of more workplace flexibility had also encouraged couples to have more children.

But that bump is now officially over.

The US total fertility rate has fallen from 3.65 births per woman in 1960 to 1.62 in 2023.

Surveys suggest that many US couples would like to have more children but see housing, job security and the cost of child care as obstacles.

Global birth rates are also falling. Already, more than half of the world’s countries do not have high enough fertility rates to sustain population size over time, according to a paper published by The Lancet last month.

By 2050 this will be the case for more than three-quarters of countries, which means most countries are now transitioning towards natural population decline.

The global fertility rate has more than halved over the past 70 years, the study found, from around five children for each woman in 1950 to 2.2 children in 2021.

In the UK, it is even lower – recent data from the Official for National Statistics showed that the UK fertility rate fell to 1.49 children per woman in 2022 – the lowest level since records began in 1939. There are warnings this could precipitate labour and economic challenges in the years to come.