New data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows fertility and birth rates continue to fall across the U.S., while cesarean section procedures increased and preterm birth rates remained flat.
The 2025 provisional number of births fell 1% from the previous year to about 3.6 million births, and the general fertility rate also dropped 1% for women between the ages of 15 and 44. The decrease was a difference of 22,534 births. The national fertility rate is calculated as the total number of live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age.
The number of births has continued to slowly decline or remain flat since 2015, according to the CDC, and the fertility and birth rates among teenagers continues to fall by much larger margins. The teenage fertility rate has decreased by 72% since 2007, down another 7% last year for teens aged 15 to 19.
Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, have focused on the declining birth rate as a problem that should be addressed by national and state policies. Vance campaigned on increasing taxes on people without children and expanding the child tax credit to increase birth rates.
But many sociologists have said low birth rates are a sign of an advanced culture that provides more opportunities for people to pursue career and life goals, and some of the negative factors that drive down rates are related to affordability and uncertainty. Women interviewed by States Newsroom in 2025 said the cost of daycare, state policies around abortion and in vitro fertilization and general political instability were leading them to decide not to have more kids or not to have kids at all.
The CDC also tracks maternal and infant health characteristics, and found that the rate of C-section deliveries is the highest it’s been since 2013, continuing to increase as it has nearly every year since 2020. Among those having their first child, the rate increased from 26.6% in 2024 to 26.9% in 2025, making it the highest rate since 2012.
Preterm birth rates were largely unchanged or slightly lower, the data showed, as it has been since 2021.
