--- title: Pregnancy: Birth Rates in U.S. Decline description: In troubling sign for economy canonical: https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/ author: Eliza Gray article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-04T15:44:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:24.795Z og:title: American Women Are Waiting to Have Kids og:description: And it could be bad news for the economy og:url: https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0fdf6509416dc27/69876c96f887dcb63be88c9d/pregnancy-rates.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Portrait of woman wearing striped dress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: American Women Are Waiting to Have Kids twitter:description: And it could be bad news for the economy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0fdf6509416dc27/69876c96f887dcb63be88c9d/pregnancy-rates.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Birthrate Declines as American Women Wait by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Dec 4, 2014 3:44 PM UTC  Portrait of woman wearing striped dress Portrait of woman wearing striped dressGetty Images by [Eliza Gray](https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/) ## Eliza Gray Dec 4, 2014 3:44 PM UTC U.S. birth rates hit a record low in 2013, [federal researchers said Thursday](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db175.htm), down 9% from a high in 2007. The “baby bust,” revealed in a report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, indicates that women are delaying having children until later in life. The declines were among women under 30, while the rates for women over 35 actually went up. Childbearing among older women has risen over the last three decades, according to the CDC, with rates for women 35 and older at the highest levels in roughly 50 years. The decline in childbirths is not good news for the U.S. economy. Years of declining populations rates have created economic crises in [Europe ](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/world/europe/germany-fights-population-drop.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=0)and [Japan](http://theweek.com/article/index/254923/everything-you-need-to-know-about-japans-population-crisis), as labor forces contract, the tax base shrinks, and the population gets older. The good news? Birth rates did fall 10% among teenagers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/"},"headline":"U.S. Birthrate Declines as American Women Wait","datePublished":"2014-12-04T15:44:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:24.795Z","description":"In troubling sign for economy","url":"https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","Babies","CDC","us"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0fdf6509416dc27/69876c96f887dcb63be88c9d/pregnancy-rates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Gray","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-gray/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0fdf6509416dc27/69876c96f887dcb63be88c9d/pregnancy-rates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Portrait of woman wearing striped dress","caption":"Portrait of woman wearing striped dress","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3617927/pregnancy-birthrates/","name":"U.S. Birthrate Declines as American Women Wait"}}]}] ```