The Number of Teens Giving Birth Continues to Dwindle

A slight uptick in US births occurred in 2024, breaking years of decline dating to 2008. The number of births in the United States inched up last year to roughly 3.6 million, according to provisional data from the CDC. This marked a 1% rise from the previous year, reports the Guardian, but experts aren't exactly celebrating the news. CNN reports it was an increase of about 27,000 births and notes, "Experts say that year-to-year movement in the fertility rate tends to be incremental and that a single year of change—such as this year's slight increase —does not indicate a shift in the long-term trend." That long-term trend has been downward. Zooming in:

• By race: Birth rates for Hispanic and Asian women rose by 4% and 5%, respectively. Births declined 4% among Black women, 3% for American Indian and Alaska Native women, and less than 1% for white women. Births remained largely unchanged for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women.
• Teenage decline: The report found a record-low number of teenage girls and young women gave birth. The New York Times reports there were 61.8 births per 1,000 15- to 19-year-olds in 1991. That figure was 12.7 births last year.
• That's on par with... The number of births among women aged 40-44 increased as they have done since 1985; they stood right around the teen birth rate figure, at 12.8 births per 1,000 women last year.
• A downward trend for 20-somethings: The birth rate among women in their 20s took a dive more recently: In 2007, there were 106.3 births per 1,000 20- to 24-year-olds; last year the figure was 56.7. The highest birthrate in 2007 was the 117.5 births per 1,000 25- to 29-year-olds; the number was at 91.4 in 2024.
• Highest rate: The group with the highest rate was women 30 to 34, who experienced more than 95 births for every 1,000 women.
• One view: Hans-Peter Kohler, a sociologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, cautioned against reading too much into the 2024 increase, telling the Guardian, "The decline in fertility is shared among various high-income countries, and I would expect that to continue. ... If one indeed wanted to make a profound stabilization or fertility incline one would have to do something very significant."