US Birth Rates Declining Among Gen Z Mothers
Birth rates among mothers in their 20s have declined, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.
The report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) shows that among mothers under 30, birth rates decreased between 2024 and 2025, while among those over 30, birth rates increased.
The findings could therefore indicate that Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, are having fewer children and waiting longer to have children.
Why It Matters
Birth and fertility rates are falling globally, and have been since the 1970s, according to a 2025 National Bureau of Economic Research paper.
It is believed that lower birth rates, resulting in an aging population, correlate with economic challenges by placing greater strain on Social Security and Medicare services and the health care system. However, others say they can also lead to a rise in nationwide education levels and a drop in poverty rates.
So while some say low birth rates pose a problem for the country from an economic perspective, others warn that calling low birth rates a “problem” is itself problematic, as a significant factor behind the decline in birth rates worldwide is the rise in “female autonomy,” according to the paper.
Women Are Waiting Until 30 or Older to Have Children
The April NCHS report showed that the birth rate for mothers aged between 20 and 24 was 55.8 births per 1,000 females in 2024, dropping to 52.2 in 2025. For mothers aged 25 to 29, there was also a decrease in the birth rate over the year-long period, from 89.5 to 85.6.
There were also declines in the birth rates among younger age groups, and the NCHS reported a record low fertility rate among teenagers in America. There has been a 72 percent decrease in the fertility rate-the number of children born per woman-among women aged 15-19 since 2007.
Women over 30, including those in their 40s, appear to be having more children, with each age group in this range seeing an increase in birth rates between 2024 and 2025. Those aged between 30 and 34 saw a notable increase, from 93.7 to 96.2.
There are likely many reasons why fewer women seem to be having children before they are 30, such as the “affordability crisis,” Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Newsweek.
“When young people face stagnant wages but rising costs, they find it harder and harder to really transition to adulthood-move out of their parents’ home, find a partner, feel confident that they can pay all their bills,” Guzzo said. “And adding new expenses like childcare, diapers, formula, is just really hard to imagine when you’re already feeling as if you’re living paycheck to paycheck.”
As individuals reach their 30s, Guzzo said it is more likely that they have “achieved more stability in their lives,” i.e., they might then have bought a house, found a good job, be in a long-term relationship, and these factors compound to make women “feel more confident about having kids.”
Mindy Marks, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, told Newsweek that, with the exception of 2006, the “mean age of mothers at birth has either increased or remained stable every year since 1970,” but that many factors are responsible for this, such as improvements in contraceptives, fertility treatment, education and others. She added that this also coincides with the age of first marriage increasing, too.
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Birth Rates By Mother's Age (2024-2025)
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The Declining U.S. Fertility Rate
The NCHS report also showed that the U.S. fertility rate has reached its lowest point since 2000, while the number of births has declined notably over the last few decades, though the decline has been more stable since 2020.
The estimated number of births in the U.S. in 2025 was around 3 million, marking a decrease of 1 percent from the number in 2024, while the provisional fertility rate in 2025 was 53.1 among those aged between 15 and 44, also a decrease of 1 percent from the rate in 2024, and a 23 percent drop since 2007.
America’s fertility rate is likely dropping because “fewer people are feeling secure in their economic circumstances,” Guzzo said, meaning they continue to delay having children, and then “often end up having fewer children than they would have liked.”
“These continued declines in birth rates, combined with the push against immigration, suggest the U.S. population will start to decline sooner than previously expected,” Guzzo added.
“Immigration has long helped keep the U.S. have continued population growth and served key sectors of our labor market, so I am more worried about the immediate impacts of the current immigration trends than the birth rate trends,” she said.
Marks said that “any long term decline in fertility is problematic.”
“Programs like Social Security use current workers as a tax base to provide benefits for retirees-if the ratio of retirees to workers increases it is hard to keep such programs solvent,” she said. “Additionally children provide economic benefit to society because as adults they may invent or improve something, increasing productivity.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has made it clear it is concerned about America’s low birth rates, and as a result, passed a number of policies at the start of 2025 aimed at boosting birth rates.
These include an executive order expanding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF), a Department of Transportation directive to give precedence to “communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average,” and others.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of Medicare and Medicaid Services, has also said he hopes for a boom of “Trump babies” in time for the midterms this year, but other forecasts suggest that U.S. fertility rates will continue to decline.
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This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 7:33 AM.