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TThe US fertility rate has fallen to a record in 2018 and the number of births fell for a fourth consecutive year, reported Wednesday the National Center for Health Statistics.
The nation's total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman should have in her lifetime given current birth rates, has reached a record low of 1.73, a decrease of 2 %. This figure is below the maintenance threshold of the current population level, 2.1 children for each mother.
The number of births, meanwhile, fell to 3,788,235, a decrease of 2% and the lowest in 32 years.
Preliminary data released on Wednesday suggests that the United States, which once had exceptionally high fertility for a rich country, is more like Japan and the rich countries of Europe, which have long had low fertility and, in some cases, a low fertility rate. loss of population. Fertility rates in the United States are now below the replacement rate in a decade, after a fall that coincided with the financial crisis.
The largest drop in births occurred among teenagers aged 15 to 19, who gave birth to 179,607 children, a decrease of 9%. Although the number of teen births is still relatively high in the United States compared to other countries, it has fallen sharply in recent years, but researchers attribute this trend to greater abstinence and greater reliance. birth control.
The drop in the teenage motherhood rate was slightly offset by the increase in births among women aged 40 to 44, which rose 2% to 117,339. Pregnancy in this age group was amount since 1982.
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