Historical chart and dataset showing U.S. birth rate by year from 1950 to 2025.

This dataset contains counts of live births for California as a whole based on information entered on birth certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out of state births to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all births that occurred during the time period.

The final data tables include both births that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and births to California residents (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes births that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by parent giving birth's age, parent giving birth's race-ethnicity, and birth place type. See temporal coverage for more information on which strata are available for which years.

NOTES: Figures include all revisions received from the states and, therefore, may differ from those previously published. Data are provisional and are subject to monthly reporting variation. National data are calculated by summing the number of events reported by state of residence; counts are rounded to the nearest thousand (births and deaths) or hundred (infant deaths). Provisional counts may differ by approximately 2% from final counts, due to rounding and reporting variation. Additionally, the accuracy of the provisional counts may change over time. Data are estimates by state of residence. For discussion of the nature, source, and limitations of the data, see "Technical Notes" of the report, Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data for 2009. Available from URL: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_25.htm. Final counts of births, deaths, and infant deaths for previous years can be obtained from http://wonder.cdc.gov. SOURCE: Provisional data from the National Vital Statistics System, National Center for Health Statistics, CDC.

While the standard image of the nuclear family with two parents and 2.5 children has persisted in the American imagination, the number of births in the U.S. has steadily been decreasing since 1990, with about 3.67 million babies born in 2022. In 1990, this figure was 4.16 million. Birth and replacement rates A country’s birth rate is defined as the number of live births per 1,000 inhabitants, and it is this particularly important number that has been decreasing over the past few decades. The declining birth rate is not solely an American problem, with EU member states showing comparable rates to the U.S. Additionally, each country has what is called a “replacement rate.” The replacement rate is the rate of fertility needed to keep a population stable when compared with the death rate. In the U.S., the fertility rate needed to keep the population stable is around 2.1 children per woman, but this figure was at 1.67 in 2022. Falling birth rates Currently, there is much discussion as to what exactly is causing the birth rate to decrease in the United States. There seem to be several factors in play, including longer life expectancies, financial concerns (such as the economic crisis of 2008), and an increased focus on careers, all of which are causing people to wait longer to start a family. How international governments will handle falling populations remains to be seen, but what is clear is that the declining birth rate is a multifaceted problem without an easy solution.

This dataset includes birth rates for females by age group in the United States since 1940.

The number of states in the reporting area differ historically. In 1915 (when the birth registration area was established), 10 states and the District of Columbia reported births; by 1933, 48 states and the District of Columbia were reporting births, with the last two states, Alaska and Hawaii, added to the registration area in 1959 and 1960, when these regions gained statehood. Reporting area information is detailed in references 1 and 2 below. Trend lines for 1909–1958 are based on live births adjusted for under-registration; beginning with 1959, trend lines are based on registered live births.

This dataset contains natality data based on CDC-collected statistics for live births occurring within the United States to U.S. residents. The data capture a range of maternal demographic information, such as state and county of residence, mother's age and race, ethnicity and country of origin, marital status, and education. It also includes health and medical data on these mothers, including prior birth history, prenatal care visits, WIC enrollment, tobacco use, method of delivery, method of payment, and congenital anomalies and other morbidity data. Beyond maternal characteristics, this dataset also illustrates both paternal and infant information that may be relevant to understanding certain social determinants of health. Paternal characteristics include age, race and ethnicity (including country of origin), education. Infant characteristics: gender, birth weight, delivery, congenital abnormalities. For researchers and population health teams, this data can be used to identify localities that have had higher-than-average complicated and high-cost births and give insight into possible targeting strategies based on population characteristics. The data are derived from birth certificates, reported to the CDC. For more information, see here .

Births rates across Lake County, Illinois by ZIP Code. Explanation of field attributes: LBW - Low birth weight is defined as a birth where the baby weighs less than 2,500 grams. This is a percent. Preterm - Preterm birth is defined as a birth that occur before 37 weeks of pregnancy. This is a percent. Teen Birth – Teen births are defined as women aged 15 to 19 years who give birth. This is a rate. Birth Rate – Birth rate is defined as the number of live births per 1,000 populations. 1st Trimester of Care – 1st Trimester of care refers to the doctor’s visits and care provided during the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. This is a percent.

Number and percentage of live births, by month of birth, 1991 to most recent year.

Analysis of ‘NCHS - Teen Birth Rates for Age Group 15-19 in the United States by County’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/5af1d809-c84e-4658-95cc-afe56cd18e64 on 12 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

This data set contains estimated teen birth rates for age group 15–19 (expressed per 1,000 females aged 15–19) by county and year.

DEFINITIONS

Estimated teen birth rate: Model-based estimates of teen birth rates for age group 15–19 (expressed per 1,000 females aged 15–19) for a specific county and year. Estimated county teen birth rates were obtained using the methods described elsewhere (1,2,3,4). These annual county-level teen birth estimates “borrow strength” across counties and years to generate accurate estimates where data are sparse due to small population size (1,2,3,4). The inferential method uses information—including the estimated teen birth rates from neighboring counties across years and the associated explanatory variables—to provide a stable estimate of the county teen birth rate. Median teen birth rate: The middle value of the estimated teen birth rates for the age group 15–19 for counties in a state. Bayesian credible intervals: A range of values within which there is a 95% probability that the actual teen birth rate will fall, based on the observed teen births data and the model.

NOTES

Data on the number of live births for women aged 15–19 years were extracted from the National Center for Health Statistics’ (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System birth data files for 2003–2015 (5).

Population estimates were extracted from the files containing intercensal and postcensal bridged-race population estimates provided by NCHS. For each year, the July population estimates were used, with the exception of the year of the decennial census, 2010, for which the April estimates were used.

Hierarchical Bayesian space–time models were used to generate hierarchical Bayesian estimates of county teen birth rates for each year during 2003–2015 (1,2,3,4).

The Bayesian analogue of the frequentist confidence interval is defined as the Bayesian credible interval. A 100*(1-α)% Bayesian credible interval for an unknown parameter vector θ and observed data vector y is a subset C of parameter space Ф such that 1-α≤P({C│y})=∫p{θ │y}dθ, where integration is performed over the set and is replaced by summation for discrete components of θ. The probability that θ lies in C given the observed data y is at least (1- α) (6).

County borders in Alaska changed, and new counties were formed and others were merged, during 2003–2015. These changes were reflected in the population files but not in the natality files. For this reason, two counties in Alaska were collapsed so that the birth and population counts were comparable. Additionally, Kalawao County, a remote island county in Hawaii, recorded no births, and census estimates indicated a denominator of 0 (i.e., no females between the ages of 15 and 19 years residing in the county from 2003 through 2015). For this reason, Kalawao County was removed from the analysis. Also , Bedford City, Virginia, was added to Bedford County in 2015 and no longer appears in the mortality file in 2015. For consistency, Bedford City was merged with Bedford County, Virginia, for the entire 2003–2015 period. Final analysis was conducted on 3,137 counties for each year from 2003 through 2015. County boundaries are consistent with the vintage 2005–2007 bridged-race population file geographies (7).

SOURCES

National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available online, Natality all-county files. Hyattsville, MD. Published annually.

For details about file release and access policy, see NCHS data release and access policy for micro-data and compressed vital statistics files, available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/dvs_data_release.htm.

For natality public-use files, see vital statistics data available online, available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm.

National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Census populations with bridged race categories. Estimated population data available. Postcensal and intercensal files. Hyattsville, MD

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Live births and stillbirths annual summary statistics, by sex, age of mother, whether within marriage or civil partnership, percentage of non-UK-born mothers, birth rates and births by month and mothers' area of usual residence.

This dataset contains counts of live births to California residents by ZIP Code based on information entered on birth certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state births to California residents. The data tables include births to residents of California by ZIP Code of residence (by residence).

Note that ZIP Codes are intended for mail delivery routing and do not represent geographic regions. ZIP Codes are subject to change over time and may not represent the same locations between different time periods. All ZIP Codes in the list of California ZIP Codes used for validation are included for all years, but this does not mean that the ZIP Code was in use at that time.

This dataset includes crude birth rates and general fertility rates in the United States since 1909.

The number of states in the reporting area differ historically. In 1915 (when the birth registration area was established), 10 states and the District of Columbia reported births; by 1933, 48 states and the District of Columbia were reporting births, with the last two states, Alaska and Hawaii, added to the registration area in 1959 and 1960, when these regions gained statehood. Reporting area information is detailed in references 1 and 2 below. Trend lines for 1909–1958 are based on live births adjusted for under-registration; beginning with 1959, trend lines are based on registered live births.

Number and percentage of live births, by marital status of mother, 1991 to most recent year.

This dataset includes birth rates for unmarried women by age group, race, and Hispanic origin in the United States since 1970.

Methods for collecting information on marital status changed over the reporting period and have been documented in:

• Ventura SJ, Bachrach CA. Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940–99. National vital statistics reports; vol 48 no 16. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2000. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_16.pdf. • National Center for Health Statistics. User guide to the 2013 natality public use file. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2014. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/VitalStatsOnline.htm.

National data on births by Hispanics origin exclude data for Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in 1989; for New Hampshire and Oklahoma in 1990; for New Hampshire in 1991 and 1992. Information on reporting Hispanic origin is detailed in the Technical Appendix for the 1999 public-use natality data file (see (ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/DVS/natality/Nat1999doc.pdf.)

All birth data by race before 1980 are based on race of the child. Starting in 1980, birth data by race are based on race of the mother.

Crude birth rates, age-specific fertility rates and total fertility rates (live births), 2000 to most recent year.

This dataset contains the number of New York State live births stratified by the mother's age range and county of residence. The data presented here may not be the same as the Vital Statistics tables on the DOH public web due to data updates. For more information, check out: http://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/vital_statistics/. The "About" tab contains additional details concerning this dataset.

Live births in the UK by area of usual residence of mother. The tables contain summary data for local authorities and local health boards (within Wales) including figures by age of mother.

This dataset contains percent preterm and very preterm live births by race/ethnic group of mother. Preterm births are all live births less than 37 weeks of gestation. Very preterm births are all live births less than 32 weeks of gestation. Important growth and development occur throughout pregnancy, especially in the final months and weeks. There is a higher risk of serious disability or death the earlier a baby is born. Gestational age is based on obstetric estimate at delivery (OE). Data includes births with gestational age of 17-47 weeks. Note: The race and ethnic groups in this table utilize eight mutually exclusive race and ethnicity categories. These categories are Hispanic and the following Non-Hispanic categories of Multi-Race, African-American, American Indian (includes Eskimo and Aleut), Asian, Pacific Islander (includes Hawaiian), White (includes Other race) and Unknown (includes refused to state and missing).

Data should not be compared to other data where gestational age is based on the date of last normal menses (LMP) and not OE. The National Center for Health Statistics recently transitioned to using an OE-based gestational age measure due to increasing evidence of its greater validity compared with the LMP-based measure. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_05.pdf)

Italy IT: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 7.800 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 8.000 Ratio for 2015. Italy IT: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 10.000 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 19.700 Ratio in 1964 and a record low of 7.800 Ratio in 2016. Italy IT: Birth Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Italy – Table IT.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude birth rate indicates the number of live births occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

This collection provides information on live births in the United States during calendar year 1981. The natality data in this file are a component of the vital statistics collection effort maintained by the federal government. Geographic variables of residence for births include the state, county, city, population, division and state subcode, Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA), and metropolitan/non-metropolitan county. Other variables include the race and sex of the child, the age of the mother, mother's education, place of delivery, person in attendance, and live-birth order. The natality tabulations in the documentation include live births by age of mother, live-birth order, and race of child, live births by marital status of mother, age of mother, and race of child, and live births by attendant and place of delivery. (Source: downloaded from ICPSR 7/13/10)

Please Note: This dataset is part of the historical CISER Data Archive Collection and is also available at ICPSR at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03327.v1. We highly recommend using the ICPSR version as they may make this dataset available in multiple data formats in the future.