TUESDAY, Aug. 20, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Final government data finds the number of U.S. births falling by 2% last year compared to 2022, continuing a decades-long decline.

Overall, annual U.S. birth numbers have fallen by 17% since peaking in 2007, according to the new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The general fertility rate (births per 1,000 women) has also tumbled by 21% over that time period, the report found.

Births to females in their teen years (ages 15 to 19) are part of this trend, declining by 4% from 2022 to 2023, say a team led by Joyce Martin, of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

In total, there were 3,596,017 births recorded in the United States last year, compared to 3,667,758 the year previously.

In other CDC birth data, fewer pregnant women received adequate care in 2023 compared to 2022.

The number of women who received prenatal care during their first trimester fell by 1%, and the percentage who got no prenatal care at all rose by 5%, continuing a trend noted in 2021 to 2022.

"Late and no-care levels have risen steadily since 2016," Martin's team noted in the report.

About 10.4% of births were premature in 2023; about the same as 2022. Early-term births (during the 37th and 38th week of pregnancy) rose by 2%.

"Since the most recent low in 2014, preterm birth rates have risen 9% and early-term births by 21%, while full-term and late- and post-term births have declined," the NCHS team wrote.

The new findings were published Aug. 20 as an NCHS Data Brief.

More information

Find out more about preterm birth at the March of Dimes.

SOURCE: NCHS Data Brief, Aug. 20, 2024