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Video above: Trump announces creation of a fertility benefit option, launch of moms.gov on May 11, 2026.
(NEXSTAR) – The nation’s fertility rate has been declining for nearly two decades, something that may at least be partially related to the device you may be reading this on.
Data released earlier this year showed the U.S. fertility rate hit a record low in 2025, reaching 53.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. That’s down roughly 23% from 2007, according to data from the CDC.
Some of the decline could be attributed to the recession in the late 2000s — the fertility rate dropped by about 7% between 2007 and 2010 — and the COVID pandemic. Between 2020 and 2025, the fertility rate dropped by about 5%.
The steady drop may also be at least slightly related to technological improvements, like the iPhone, a recently released working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests. In the paper, researchers argued that the rollout of Apple’s iPhone may explain about one-third to one-half of the decline in general fertility between 2007 and 2011. (The iPhone may have especially contributed to a decline in births among women younger than 25, researchers noted.)
On a state-by-state basis, CDC data show some have seen larger fertility declines than others.
Between 2007 and 2020 — the most recent data set without preliminary data from the CDC — no state saw the fertility rate increase among women aged 15-44. Instead, all but one state saw fertility fall by at least 10%.
In two Western states, Arizona and Utah, the fertility rate dropped by more than 30%. As of 2020, the per-1,000 rates in Arizona and Utah were 53.85 and 63.95, respectively. That’s down from 82.39 and 95.52 in 2007.
Utah, Idaho and Arizona lead the nation in fertility rates (Idaho was slightly higher than Arizona at 82.83) in 2007. In 2020, only Utah ranked among the top 10.
In nearby New Mexico, Nevada and Oregon, the fertility rate has declined by at least 28%.
The interactive map below shows how much each state’s fertility rate has dropped over that time period, per CDC data:
While many of the hardest-hit states are west of the Mississippi, another in the region has experienced the smallest decline.
Over the same 14-year period, North Dakota’s fertility rate dropped by just 2.34%, falling from 68.87 per 1,000 to 67.26. In between, the fertility rate even increased, peaking at 78.7 in 2014, per CDC data.
Only three states — Pennsylvania, Alabama and Michigan — had fertility rate decreases of less than 11%.
It’s possible that the fertility rate in the U.S. doesn’t sharply increase anytime soon. Public sentiment appears to be shifting away from having children. Recent studies show Americans in their 20s and 30s are having fewer children, and that more than half of adults believe having children would negatively impact the U.S. in the future. Another survey found that many respondents believe having children is no longer affordable.
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