United States

US Birth Rate Falls for 4th Year in a Row

There were 3,791,712 births registered in the U.S. in 2018, down 2 percent from 2017

A final tally of babies born in the U.S. last year confirms that the birth rate fell again in 2018, reaching the lowest level in more than three decades, NBC News reported.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics finds there were 3,791,712 births registered in the U.S. in 2018, down 2 percent from 2017.

A closer look at the data suggests that Americans are not having enough babies to sustain the population.

The total fertility rate for 2018 was 1,729.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. (The fertility rate refers to how many children women have overall; birth rate refers to how many children women have in a single year.) But in order for the nation to reproduce its population and remain stable, the CDC says there would need to be 2,100 births per 1,000 women.

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