In 2018, US fertility reached its negative peak: the number of newborns fell for the fourth consecutive year, a sign of a growing problem. This is reported by an analysis conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.

What is the total fertility rate of a nation? It is the number of children that each woman should have in life, at least on average. In 2018, it reached 1.73 children for every American woman. Compared to 32 years ago, there was a 2% drop and is below what should be the minimum threshold. In order for population levels to remain stable, every woman should give birth to an average of 2.1 children. For the moment we have only provisional data, but they are not reassuring.

Once the United States had a high fertility rate, quite atypical for such a rich nation. Now, the country conforms to other nations of the first world, such as Italy and Japan. The decline has been in existence for ten years now, which suggests a strong link between the 2007 economic crisis and the demographic crisis. The most significant drop is among the very young, particularly among girls aged 15-19. In recent years, teenagers have given birth to 179,607 children, 9% less.

The numbers are still relatively high, compared to other first-world countries, but have fallen drastically. It is likely that it is largely due to the increased use of contraceptives. In conjunction with the decline in pregnancies among the very young, there has been an increase in mothers in their forties. Women who gave birth between the ages of 40 and 44 rose by 2% to 117,339.

Source: wsj.com