2018: US Reports Record Decline in Birth Rate

In an alarming scenario, the United States has reported a record decline in its overall birth rate for 2018!

According to a latest report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the birth rate was only 59 per 1,000 women in the age group of 15-44 years, showing a 2% decline over 2017.

Surprisingly, this is the record low rate since the country started tracking birth rates since 1909, the report revealed.

Looking at more statistics, US witnessed only 3.8 million births in 2018 hitting the lowest decline in the last 32 years.

Age-wise, birth rates in case of women of 32 years decreased normally, while those in the age group of 20 years reported 4 percent decline during 2017-18.

Whereas, the birth rate among females in the 15-19 age group decline 7 percent, at the rate of 17 births per 1000 teens, during 2017-18.

However, there was a slight rise in case of women under 35-39 and 40-44 age groups!

Even the fertility rate of 1.7 births per US woman also declined 2%, causing a serious concern over population growth.

According to experts, the country would have witnessed around 5.7 million births if fertility rates had not declined below precession levels.

Summarized,

• Overall, birth rate among US women in the age group of 15-44 years was 59 births per 1,000 women
• 2018 saw 2 percent fall in number of births compared to 2017
• Births to teenage females reached a record low, with 8% decline among the 15-19 years old females
• Premature birth rate, delivery at less than 37 weeks, increased for the 4^th consecutive year to just over 10% from 9.9%.

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