In July 2025, new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data revealed a low national birth rate and total fertility rate, sparking mixed reactions about the future of the United States’ population.

Though the number of births in 2024 technically increased 1% from the year before, the annual number of births has decreased 16% since 2007. The total fertility rate — or the number of children a woman has on average in her lifetime — is at a record low of 1.6. 

A number of factors may be behind the trend, but some Americans are pointing fingers at high costs of living, increased contraceptive accessibility and shifting attitudes around childbirth.

Is this a problem?

Some blame the decline on growing feminist movements and the expansion of career opportunities for women. One is Finn McIntosh, president of Illini Republicans and sophomore in LAS. 

“One word: feminism,” McIntosh said when asked what factors are behind the drop in births. “I think that feminism, and otherwise the empowerment of women … has moved women to go to college, get a job and enter the workforce, and that is heavily constricting their abilities to be mothers.”

McIntosh’s views are shared by those in the pronatalist movement, made popular in recent years by conservative figures like Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and the late Charlie Kirk. Supporters say families should have more children than they can afford and encourage women to prioritize childbearing. 

“A birth rate is critical to the continuation of a nation,” McIntosh said. “If you are not able to reproduce your population, that leads (to) a variety of problems.”

McIntosh said he was concerned about the stability of social security, as well as immigration influxes, which he thinks might be used to supplement declines in American-born children. Others don’t see the declining rates as a threat to the nation but rather a promising marker of reproductive freedom and changing social dynamics. 

“I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing,” said Amanda Quealy, co-president of Planned Parenthood Generation Action at the University and junior in LAS. “You have to look at the conditions that are causing it. And right now, the conditions that are causing it are more freedom of choice, more access to birth control and other contraceptives.”

Bianca O’Shea, PPGA’s special events coordinator and sophomore in LAS, agreed that improved contraceptive access and reproductive education may be some of the factors influencing birth rates.

“More than ever, women and other people who want to have the ability to have children have the option to choose whether or not to,” O’Shea said. “There (are) so many different options like adoption or abortion or contraceptives … which we haven’t seen at such a broad range before.”

Regarding the pronatalist movement, Quealy said she thinks the viewpoint is misguided.

“I think we see those opinions a lot in people who don’t just really want more children in the world,” Quealy said. “They don’t want a population boom. It’s about reproductive control.”

Finding solutions

President Donald Trump has been a vocal supporter of pronatalism and began introducing incentives for having children in his second term. His “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” included baby bonuses — $1,000 accounts given to American children at birth. 

Natalie Lira, professor in LAS who studies reproductive justice, is skeptical that incentives like these will be effective.

“I think incentives like more money at the end of the year don’t always address the full scope of reasons why people have decided to not have children or have fewer children,” Lira said. 

Lira, whose research focuses on sterilization and the history of reproductive control in the U.S., rejects any government involvement that infringes on reproductive justice.

“Any kind of government program that would try to force or coerce people to have children would go against the principles of reproductive justice,” Lira said.

As a mother herself, Lira said she has witnessed firsthand how costly childcare is. But rising expenses go far beyond early childhood care and may be deterring families from having children. 

A 2025 SmartAsset study found that the annual cost of raising a child ranges from $19,000 in the cheapest state to $44,000 in the most expensive. Most estimates say families can expect to spend around $300,000 to raise a child through age 18.

Quealy said the country is not heading in the right direction, specifically how it supports families who desire to have children. 

“Right now, under the current administration, we’ve seen some steps back,” Quealy said. “Recently, SNAP benefits were reduced, and we’ve also seen a reduction in Medicare and all those sorts of benefits that are supporting people to have healthy, fed, happy families. I think it’s not an environment that would be safe for an increase in birth rates right now.”

Both Quealy and Lira said adequate maternity and paternity leave is necessary to support parents. But McIntosh has a different idea — one that involves making workplaces less accommodating for women, leading them to stay home and rear children instead of working.

“If we were able to change the workplace structure in itself and how we treat employees, I think that would be very beneficial in reverting to what I would see as the solution, which is a traditional environment for both women and men,” McIntosh said. 

‘What kind of world?’

Beyond workplace dynamics and contraceptive access, some potential parents are considering the existential aspect of having children. 

“I think folks might choose not to have children or have fewer children because they’re concerned about the environment,” Lira said. “Even the political climate … What kind of world are people bringing their children into? Broadly, if economic and political outlooks were better for groups of people, then they might choose to have more children.”

Birth trends also seem to reflect a growing cultural acceptance of parenthood later in life. The CDC’s report detailed that, from 2023 to 2024, birth rates declined for women aged 15-34 but increased for women aged 40-44.  

Scientists have greatly advanced the efficacy and accessibility of in vitro fertilization in the last four decades, allowing women to freeze their eggs and extend their fertility windows. 

“It’s not as urgent, I think, as people once thought it was,” Quealy said. “We all have these conceptions about your fertility clock … I think we’ve changed that mentality and made medicine so that people can wait and can have healthy children at older ages.”

Illinois has been consistent with the national trend of declining birth rates in recent decades. In 2000, Illinois recorded 185,003 live births, but the number has fallen steadily since. In 2022, only 128,493 live births were recorded by the state. 

Champaign County recorded 2,260 births in 2000, and the number rose to above 2,400 in the 2010s. In 2022, the number dipped below 2,000, marking 1,995 live births.

These falling numbers read differently from one American to the next. Whether alarming or empowering, the data suggest that the ancient childbirth question is in for a big cultural shakeup.

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