Births Registered in U.S. Increased 1 Percent From 2020 to 2021

FRIDAY, Feb. 3, 2023 (HealthDay News) — From 2020 to 2021, there was an increase in births registered in the United States and in the general fertility rate, according to a study published in the Jan. 31 National Vital Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Michelle J. K. Osterman, from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and colleagues present 2021 data on U.S. births according to various characteristics and examine trend data from 2020 to 2021.

The researchers note that 3,664,292 births were registered in the United States in 2021, which marked a 1 percent increase from 2020. There was a 1 percent increase observed in the general fertility rate from 2020 to 56.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years in 2021. For women aged 15 to 19 years, the birth rate decreased 7 percent from 2020 to 2021, while the birth rate decreased 3 percent for women aged 20 to 24 years; there was a 2 percent increase to 5 percent noted among women aged 25 to 44 years. A 1 percent increase was seen in the total fertility rate to 1,664.0 births per 1,000 women in 2021. For unmarried women, birth rates declined, but they increased for married women from 2020 to 2021.

There was an increase observed in the preterm birth rate to 10.49 percent and in the rate of low birthweight births to 8.52 percent. Increases were seen in the twin birth rate and the triplet and higher-order multiple birth rate (31.2 per 1,000 births and 80.0 per 100,000 births, respectively, in 2021), although the increases were not significant.