The U.S. fertility declined in 2018 for the fourth consecutive year, reaching a record low 59.1 births for every 1,000 women able to bear children, the National Center for Health Statistics announced Wednesday.
The fertility rate has been on the decline since the 2008 recession, with a slight rebound in 2014. Typically economic crises lead to a decline in fertility rates but the current decline has not reversed even as the economy has recovered.
“It is hard for me to believe that the birthrate just keeps going down,” University of New Hampshire demographer Kenneth Johnson told to the New York Times.
“The data suggest that people want to establish themselves before having children,” Alison Gemmill, a demographer at Johns Hopkins University, told the Times. “They also want to make sure they have adequate resources to raise quality children.”
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