The US is experiencing its biggest decline in birth rates in 50 years.

According to the CDC report which is based on a review of more than 99 per cent of birth certificates issued last year, the US birth rate has fallen 4 per cent in just one year.

The rate dropped for mothers of every major race and ethnicity, and in nearly all age groups. The report said this is its lowest point since federal health officials started tracking it more than a century ago.

The figures suggest that the current generation will not have enough children to replace itself.

And if that piece of information is quite alarming. The US used to be one of the few developed countries with a fertility rate above 2.1 children per woman that ensured each generation had enough children to replace itself.

But the rate has been sliding for more than 10 years and last year dropped to about 1.6, the lowest rate on record.

According to the report; About 3.6 million babies were born in the US last year, down from about 3.75 million in 2019.

The US birth rate dropped to about 56 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age, the lowest rate on record. The rate is half of what it was in the early 1960s.

The birth rate for 15 to 19-year-olds dropped 8 per cent from 2019. It has fallen almost every year since 1991.

The pandemic is seen as a huge contributor to last year’s big decline, the experts say. Anxiety about Covid-19 and its impact on the economy likely caused many couples to think that it was not the right time to have a baby.