The number of births declined in the United States in 2023, ending two years of upticks during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new federal report.
A report published early Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics showed there were 3,596,017 babies born in 2023.
This is a decrease of 2% from the 3,667,758 babies born in 2022 and the 3,664,292 babies born in 2021.
The drop in births follows trends seen between 2014 and 2019, when births were declining by an average of 1% per year, and by 4% from 2019 to 2020. The number of births increased in 2021 and 2022, but the latter was not viewed as statistically significant, according to the new report.
Additionally, the report found the general fertility rate for women between ages 15 and 44 was 54.5 births per 1,000 women, a decrease of 3% from 56.0 in 2022 and 56.3 in 2021.
This also follows trends seen in the last decade when fertility rates dropped 2% per year on average from 2014 to 2019 and fell by 4% from 2019 to 2020.
“Since the most recent high in 2007, the number of births has declined 17%, and the general fertility rate has declined 21%,” according to the report.
The report did not provide reasons for the decrease in births, but fertility has trended downward on and off since the 1970s and has been on a steady decline since the Great Recession of 2008-09, according to the non-profit Pew Charitable Trusts.
Studies have examined what may have led to a small baby boom in 2021 and 2022 and say it could be due to more flexibility with remote work or families having children that put the decision off during the first year of the pandemic.
The report also found the percentage of pregnant people receiving prenatal care beginning in the first trimester declined for the second year in a row in 2023.
Prenatal care beginning in the first trimester fell 1% in 2023 to 76.1% from 77.0% in 2022, which follows a 2% decline seen from 2021 to 2022.
What’s more, the percentage of those who did not receive any prenatal care increased 5% in 2023 to 2.3% from 2.2% in 2022. This follows a 5% drop from 2021 to 2022, the report found.
Prenatal care helps protect the health of the pregnant person and the baby. Babies born who do not receive prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than those born to those who do get care, according to the Office on Women’s Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
While the number of pre-term infants was essentially unchanged between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of infants born early-term, meaning born between 37 weeks and 39 weeks, rose 2% from 2022 to 2023 while the percentage of full-term births declined by 1% over the same period.
The report included positive news including a decline in the birth rate for teenagers. The rate for teenagers between ages 15 and 19 declined 4% from 2022 to 2023, from 13.6 births per 1,000 to 13.1 births, and was down 6% from 2021.