The United States’s fertility rate continued its two-decade-long decline during the first quarter of 2026, according to new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Tuesday.

The general fertility rate, or the number of births per 1,000 childbearing age women, dropped to 53 during the first three months of 2026. That means fewer than 900,000 babies have been born in the U.S. so far this year.

Fertility rates and birth rates are key measures for demographers measuring population health, along with death rates and net immigration.

The U.S. birth and fertility rates have been on a steady decline since 2007, during the Great Recession, when more millennial women began delaying childbirth until their late 20s or early 30s.

The new data come after the CDC announced in April that the total number of births last year fell by a full 1% to only 3.6 million, hitting a record low.

Reversing the trend of declining birth rates has been a central focus of the Trump administration.

Last year, the Trump administration established tax-advantaged savings accounts for babies born between January 2025 and December 2028 in part to incentivize births.

The Department of Health and Human Services also launched the website Moms.gov

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