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US birth rate too low to replace population: Report

Friday, 11 January 2019 7:32 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 11 January 2019 7:41 AM ]

A new report says the number of US births was so low in 2017 that it wasn’t enough to keep the population levels steady.

The US birth rate was down in nearly all 50 states in 2017 and below the level needed for the population to replace itself, according to a new government report.

Nationwide, the fertility rate was 16 percent lower than what is required to keep the population level steady, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed Thursday.

Experts say this is likely due to the fact that the large proportion of native-born women are having fewer children than before.

CDC researchers also found that the US white population has been hit hard by the Great Recession of 2008 and is aging.

The CDC reported in May that the US birth rate has fallen for three straight years. The agency said the number of US babies born in 2017 fell 2 percent from 2016 to 3.85 million, a 30-year low.

US birth rate drops to lowest level in 3 decades

Women in the United States gave birth last year at the lowest rate in 30 years.

Demographers and public policy experts say if the rate continues to decline, there will not be enough healthy, young workers to keep the economy going and replace an aging population

Researchers looked at the birth certificates from all 50 states, in addition to Washington, DC. The nation’s capital had the lowest birth rate.

The only states that are keeping up with the population are South Dakota and Utah.

“Many states have seen fewer births and more deaths in recent years,” said Sandra Johnson, a demographer in the Population Division of the US Census Bureau.

“If those states are not gaining from either domestic or international migration they will experience either low population growth or outright decline,” she said.

Declining birth rates in Western societies have been the subject of considerable public analysis in recent months.

A recent study by a conservative think tank in Washington, DC, found that that fertility rates in the United States have declined significantly and could fall to their lowest rates ever.

The research, "Declining Fertility in America," which was released in December by the American Enterprise Institute, shows that birth rates have fallen in America to one of the lowest recorded levels, and could drop even further to record low levels.

Most of these drops in birth rates are a result of changing marital habits, mainly young people delaying marriage, said the report's author, Lyman Stone.

Policy responses are unlikely to effectively address the many challenges young people face regarding childbearing and a significant recovery in birth rates is not likely, Stone predicts.

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