The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released provisional data last week showing a drop in fertility rates in the 12-month period beginning with the third quarter of 2024 and ending with the third quarter of 2025.
The CDC’s updated data, which may be subject to change, showed about 3.6 million live births in 2025, a nearly 24,000 drop from 2024.
What does this mean? Birth rates hit a record low in 2023, before rising less than 1% in 2024. The provisional 2025 data suggested that 2024’s slight bump may be a fluke, and birth rates will continue to fall. Birth rates have annually dropped for decades and remained below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a country’s population.
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