US fertility rate dropped to lowest in a century as births dipped in 2023 [Video]

The fertility rate in the United States has been trending down for decades, and a new report shows that another drop in births in 2023 brought the rate down to the lowest it’s been in more than a century.Video above: A conversation with Elizabeth Carr, the first person born via IVF in the U.S.There were about 3.6 million babies born in 2023, or 54.4 live births for every 1,000 females ages 15 to 44, according to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.After a steep plunge in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fertility rate has fluctuated. But the 3% drop between 2022 and 2023 brought the rate just below the previous low from 2020, which was 56 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age.”We’ve certainly had larger declines in the past. But decline fits the general pattern,” …