The U.S. Birth Rate Hits a New Low. Can We Finally Talk About the Why?

Well, here’s a big piece of news: The United States fertility rate fell to a new low in 2025. According to data from the CDC, fertility rates fell about 1 percent from 2024 to 2025. This follows a general decline we’ve been seeing for years now. According to the data, fertility rates in the US peaked in 2007 — and researcher Brady Hamilton tells NPR that the general fertility rate has declined by 23 percent since then.

This is a really significant shift. But we can’t talk about it without talking about what’s driving fertility rates down. 

Moms First founder Reshma Saujani puts it best: “I would argue that our fertility rates are a scorecard on how America is doing to support families,” she says during an appearance on CNN. “And guess what? We’re failing. We are pricing people out of parenthood.”

And she’s right. Let’s face it: Getting pregnant feels terrifying when reproductive choice is being taken away, leaving pregnant women vulnerable to life-threatening complications.

Giving birth is terrifying when you’re poised to do it in a country with a maternal mortality crisis.

Having a baby is terrifying when you may have to return to work just weeks or even days postpartum.

Raising a child is terrifying when you can’t afford quality childcare.

And the list goes on and on. Fertility rates are dropping because our system hasn’t done enough to make having children less scary…or even less impossible. 

What a lot of people hear when they see that the fertility rate has declined is that fewer people are having kids. What it actually means is that people are having fewer children. So some families may stop at 2 kids instead of 3 because having a 3-child family has become a real luxury — some people are even saying that a third baby is a status symbol along the lines of a Birkin bag. Because guess what? Raising children is  incredibly expensive, now more than ever — even after the daycare days, because guess what? The school day and the work day still don't line up. It's just another way the system makes parenthood impossible for American parents. 

So yeah. Fertility rates are down. That’s a real thing. But what’s just as important is the context of why people are having fewer children. Because one is a reflection of the other.