America’s Record-Low Birth Rate Could Slow Economic Growth, Doom Social Security
The economic and social ramifications of this dearth in reproduction — a baby bust — could be extraordinary.
New federal data shows America’s birth rate hit new lows in 2023, part of a growing trend that is threatening to slow the economy and strap government programs that run on taxpayer money.
America’s total fertility rate fell in 2023 to 1.62 births per woman. That’s a 2 percent decline from a year earlier, according to provisional data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Last year’s birth rate is dipping further below the “replacement rate” of 2.1 children per woman, and far below the baby boom peak of 3.77 births per woman in 1957.
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