# Birth rates in the United States last year

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2018-05-20

america, birth-rates, birth-update, births, demographics, family-formation, global-population, health-statistics, health-stats, household-formation, housing, real-estate, uncategorized, united-states, vital-statistics-system

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The National Center of Health Statistics just released [this update](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/report004.pdf) on births and birth rates for the United States in 2017. The provisional number of births last year was 3,853,472, which represents a 2% reduction from 2016 and the lowest number in 30 years. The general fertility rate was 60.2 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44, which represents a 3% reduction from 2016. Also a record low.

Here is a chart from the report showing birth rates for selected age ranges from 1990 to 2016 (the 2017 numbers are provisional):

![image](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9de91d98871f487cda3ccb54866013f3.png)

Many of the age ranges have remained stable. Notable are the decline in the teenage (15-19) birth rate and the increase in births to women aged 40-44. The teenage birth rate declined 7% from 2016 and has averaged a decline of nearly 8% a year since 2007. And the birth rate for women aged 40-44 has generally been rising since 1982.

I am sure that you can all think of many explanations for the above phenomena without even diving into the report. I find all of this relevant because demographics obviously impact the real estate business and how we build cities.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/birth-rates-in-the-united-states-last-year)*