The number of babies born in the U.S. dropped by 4% in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to a new federal report …
The number of babies born in the U.S. dropped by 4% in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to a new federal report released on Wednesday. The general fertility rate was 55.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, reaching yet another record low, according to the provisional data. «This is the sixth consecutive year that the number of births has declined after an increase in 2014, down an average of 2% per year, and the lowest number of births since 1979,» the National Center for Health Statistics said. The U.S. total fertility rate, which estimates how many babies a hypothetical group of 1,000 women would have during their life based on data from a given year, remains far «below replacement» – meaning there wouldn’t be enough babies born for a generation to exactly replace itself. «The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and has consistently been below replacement since 2007,» according to the agency, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The statistical replacement rate is 2,100 births per 1,000 women.
