Fertility rates in the U.S. have hit an all-time low with statistics released by the National Center for Health Statistics showing a decline in births since 2015.
Researchers analysed the total number of births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 and found the rate had dropped from the first quarter of 2016’s 62.5 births per 1,000 women to 61.5 births in the first quarter of 2017, according to the report on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Brady E. Hamilton, lead researcher in the National Center for Health Statistics study, discovered that the number of births in the in 2016 had dropped by 1 percent from 2015.
Furthermore, birth rates had declined to record lows among women in all age groups under 30 however, there was a noted increase in births rates among women in their 30s and 40s.
Hamilton, a statistician-demographer and expert on fertility data, said the statistics reflected demographics changes in the U.S., adding that experts could merely speculate as to why there was a decline in birth rates over the years, CNN reported.
Hamilton suggested this could be due to a greater importance being placed on women’s education and career choices as well as a shifting economic climate.
Dr. Alan Copperman, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Mount Sinai Medical Center, added his thoughts.
"We see more and more women entering the workforce and delaying childbearing," he told CNN.
"They're having a lower birth rate electively," he said. "But what we worry about is the non-elective birth rate. In other words, the reproductive challenges that are facing women as they try to conceive."