Fewer babies born in U.S. in 2022, and teen birth rate hit record low, CDC reports

There were fewer babies born in the U.S. in 2022 compared to 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, suggesting that a rebound in births following the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have ended. 

An estimated 3,661,220 babies were born nationwide in 2022, according to an initial analysis of data from birth certificates issued last year. That is less than a 1% decrease from 2021.

"It's essentially unchanged. It's a very small difference, relatively speaking, compared to the total number of births, which are in the millions," said Brady Hamilton, a statistician demographer at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.