US Birth Rate Hits Record Low as Older Women Have More Babies

What happened

The US birth rate fell to a new record low in 2025, according to the latest federal data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the general fertility rate for women dropped 1% last year, extending a decline that has run for two decades.

The drop was sharpest among younger women. The birth rate for women ages 20 to 24 fell 6% in a single year, and the rate for women in their late teens fell 7%. Brady Hamilton, a demographer at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics who co-authored the report, called the 6% fall among women ages 20 to 24 noteworthy.

At the same time, the pattern flipped for older women. The CDC data showed a small but significant rise in births among women ages 30 to 45. No percentage was given for that older-age increase, but the direction was clear: fewer women are becoming mothers in their 20s, and more are doing so in their 30s and early 40s.

Why it matters

This is not a one-year blip. Twenty years of falling fertility add up, and the Census Bureau reports the population under age 18 is already shrinking, down by more than 1 million between 2010 and 2020. The US median age reached 39.4 years in 2025 and keeps rising.

The reasons women give are practical, not abstract. A study released last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found Gen Z women in their late teens and 20s were dramatically less likely to want children than women of earlier generations. It pointed to more job opportunities and independence for women, rising financial costs, changing priorities, and concerns about maternal mortality.

Sarah Harris of Vermont illustrates the trade-off. She was 37 when her daughter Bridget was born last year, and she was laid off four months later. She told NPR she is still working out what her career and life look like with a child, that financial uncertainty and the high cost of raising a child shaped her choice, and that one child is enough for her.

Cost runs through the whole story. The same [cost-of-living strain hitting US workers](/article/cost-of-living-strain-us-workers-midterm-elections) shows up here as housing, daycare, and health insurance costs that make starting a family feel out of reach. Some experts say women would choose to have more children if they could afford them and had proper supports in those three areas.

What it means for the US

A country with fewer children and an older population faces a different set of pressures. Schools feel it first: Harris said she worries about her small Vermont town because she hopes the local elementary school can stay open as long as possible. More states, including Vermont, are now seeing actual population decline, according to the Census Bureau.

The workforce feels it next. When fewer people are born, fewer workers enter the labor force years later, while more Americans move toward retirement age. That shift shapes everything from staffing to the tax base that pays for public services.

It also changes what motherhood looks like. Dr. Tanise Branche, medical director of labor and delivery at Temple Health in Philadelphia, said more of her younger patients are following a different life script and building careers and stable lives before becoming mothers. Branche is pregnant with her fourth child, began this part of her life at 37, and will be 43 when her last child is born. She summed up her view in one line: "I see the net positive being that we have a choice."

The data arrives ten days before Americans vote in the [US midterm elections](/article/us-midterm-elections-2026-explained), when household budgets and the cost of raising a family are already central to the campaign debate.

What happens next

The next question is whether the rise among women ages 30 to 45 keeps growing, and whether it can offset the steep fall among younger women. That answer will come from the CDC's next annual data, not from a single report.

Anna Louie Sussman, author of a book on parenting choices called Inconceivable, said many people still say they want families but do not feel able to have them. She froze her eggs and waited until her early 40s to have a child, citing affordability and her career. If that gap between wanting children and feeling able to afford them stays wide, the record-low trend has no obvious reason to reverse on its own.