By Jennifer Calfas and Anthony DeBarros
About 3.59 million children were born in the U.S. in 2023, a 2% drop compared with 3.66 million in 2022. Photo: LM Otero/Associated Press
American women are giving birth at record-low rates.
The total fertility rate fell to 1.62 births per woman in 2023, a 2% decline from a year earlier, federal data released Thursday showed. It is the lowest rate recorded since the government began tracking it in the 1930s.