According to the CDC the 2024 fertility rate stayed below replacement – raising fears of shrinking families, economic stagnation, and long-term national decline if trends hold.
(LifeSiteNews) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed support for a plan that would pay new mothers $5,000 for each new baby they bring into the world.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Trump said in the Oval Office this week when asked about the topic.
According to multiple data sets, birth rates in the U.S. are at historic lows.
“The general fertility rate in the United States decreased by 3% from 2022 … this marks the second consecutive year of decline, following a brief 1% increase from 2020 to 2021. From 2014 to 2020, the rate consistently decreased by 2% annually,” the Centers for Disease Control said in a press statement last April. Those trends continued for 2024, the group said this year. Per the CDC’s latest findings, which were published this month, there was a 1% uptick in rates, but those are still not where they were in years past.
“The total fertility rate in 2024 remained below replacement – the level at which a given generation can exactly replace itself … the rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007,” the CDC said.
In terms of raw numbers, the CDC found that in 2024 only 3.6 million new babies were born. This amounts to 54.6 birth for every 1,000 women of reproductive age. That number was 122.9 in 1957.
Heritage Foundation research associate Emma Waters took to X to interpret the alarming data, which she said indicates “a civilizational crisis.”
“In 2023, our fertility rate fell to just 1.62 births per woman – well below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain our population. If nothing changes, America faces a future of shrinking families and communities, economic and cultural stagnation, and national decline,” she said.
The CDC discovered that fertility rates are the highest among women age 30 to 34, who had more 95 births for every 1,000 women. Comparatively speaking, the fertility rate of teenage girls was 13 births for every 1,000 teen girls, a 3 percent drop from 2023, and rates for women ages 20 to 24 are around 56 births for every 1,000 women.
X user Mario Nawfal shared the data in a graph on X.
Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ABC News that the Trump administration is exploring a vanity of policies that will “uplift American families.”
“The president wants America to be a country where all children can safely grow up and achieve the American dream. As a mother myself, I am proud to work for a president who is taking significant action to leave a better country for the next generation," she said.
GOP Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna of Florida backed Trump's support for the idea. On X, she wrote, "I strongly support President Trump’s baby bonus for new mothers. America is facing a serious population decline, and this incentive is a crucial first step in creating bold, pro-family reforms that make it easier to start and grow a family."
The 1% increase in births from 2023 to 2024 is attributed to the uptick in births from Asian and Hispanic women while rates among Blacks, whites, and American Indians decreased. Left-wing commentator Sunny Hostin from The View opined that Trump’s support for paying moms is rooted in race. On a recent episode, Hostin suggested that Trump’s plan was to get white women to have more children.
Trump adviser Elon Musk has taken a great interest in the subject over the past several years. He has been outspoken about the drop in fertility rates across the world. On X last week he wrote, “collapsing birth rates will cause any species to go extinct.”
