U.S. fertility rate slides to all-time low in 2025, CDC figures show

U.S. birth rate since 2000.

The number of babies born in the United States in 2025 tumbled to a record low, according to the latest figures released by the CDC. The 3,606,400 babies born in the U.S. last year was a 1% decline from the number of births recorded in the U.S. in 2024, and continues a decades-long downward trend. 

"The general fertility rate was 53.1 births per 1,000 females ages 15-44, also a 1% decline from 2024," the CDC said in the report released this week, and a whopping 23% decline since 2007. What's driving the trend? A number of factors are contributing to America's declining fertility rate. 

“People are waiting longer to enter parenthood and probably want to make sure that things are set in their lives before they do so,” Wendy Manning, co-director of the university’s National Center for Family & Marriage Research, told The Wall Street Journal. “There might be a lot of uncertainty, and that might not be good for a society in general.” Birth rates for women in their late 30s topped those for women in their early 20s for the first time in recorded U.S. history, showing more women are waiting longer to have kids. 

Another driving factor is the continuously falling teen birth rate. Over the last 20 years, the teen birthrate -- babies born to mothers between the age of 15 and 19 -- has plummeted 72% in the U.S. More granularly, the birth rate dropped 11% in 2025 for girls between the ages of 15 and 17, and, among those ages 18 and 19, the birth rate rate fell 7%. 

The U.S. is about middle of the pack in terms of global birth rate declines, with South Korea, China and Spain reporting the steepest slides, according to statistics compiled by The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. sits just below the 2.1 births-per-mother figure known as the replacement level.