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NCHS

Natality Trends in the United States, 1909–2015

These figures describe natality trends in the United States since 1909. Highlighted here are number of births, birth rates, and general fertility rates by selected demographic characteristics. Data for some race or ethnicity groups are not available for the entire time period for each dashboard. Please see the notes for detailed information about availability for specific demographic categories.

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Births and General Fertility Rates - The following data tables describe the currently displayed dashboard

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Notes:

† The number of states in the reporting area differ historically. In 1915 (when the birth registration area was established), 10 states and the District of Columbia reported births; by 1933, 48 states and the District of Columbia were reporting births, with the last two states, Alaska and Hawaii, added to the registration area in 1959 and 1960, when these regions gained statehood. Reporting area information is detailed in references 1 and 2 below. Trend lines for 1909–1958 are based on live births adjusted for under-registration; beginning with 1959, trend lines are based on registered live births.

‡ Dashboard titles indicate the year of the earliest available data, but data availability varies by race and ethnicity groups. Since 1980, birth data by race are based on race of the mother. For race, data are available for Black and White births since 1960, and for American Indians/Alaska Native and Asian/Pacific Islander births since 1980. Data on Hispanic origin are available since 1989. Teen birth rates for specific racial and ethnic categories are also available since 1989. All birth data by race before 1980 are based on race of the child.

†† National data on births by Hispanic origin exclude data for Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma in 1989; New Hampshire and Oklahoma in 1990; and New Hampshire in 1991 and 1992. Information on reporting Hispanic origin is detailed in the Technical Appendix for the 1999 public-use natality data file (see ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/DVS/natality/Nat1999doc.pdf).

 

Sources:

CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, birth data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm); public-use data files (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/VitalStatsOnline.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov/).

 

References:

  1. National Office of Vital Statistics. Vital Statistics of the United States, 1950, Volume I. 1954. Available from:  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/vsus_1950_1.pdf.
  2. Hetzel AM. U.S. vital statistics system: major activities and developments, 1950-95. National Center for Health Statistics. 1997. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/usvss.pdf.
  3. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Statistics of the United States, 1967, Volume I–Natality. 1967. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/nat67_1.pdf.
  4. Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Osterman MJK, et al. Births: Final data for 2015. National vital statistics reports; vol 66 no 1. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2017. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr66/nvsr66_01.pdf.

 

Suggested citation:

Hamilton BE, Lu L, Chong Y, et al. Natality trends in the United States, 1909–2015. National Center for Health Statistics. 2017.

Designed by L Lu, BE Hamilton, L Rossen, A Lipphardt, JM Keralis, and Y Chong: CDC/National Center for Health Statistics.

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