White births have fallen again in the U.S., as the total number of births also fell across the nation.
The nation’s number of white births fell from 52.6 percent in 2016 to 49.6 percent in 2024 – tipping below 50 percent, researchers at New York’s Hofstra University announced on Friday.
The country’s total number of annual live births also fell during the same period, dropping from 3.9 million to 3.6 million.
The findings signal what the researchers called a “major demographic transition,” and echoes previous data showing America’s fertility rate is on the decline.
“These shifts reflect declining fertility across most groups, contrasted with immigration trends and younger ages among Hispanic women that sustain overall birth rates,” the researchers wrote.
The first drop
This isn’t the first time white births have tumbled below that 50 percent mark – although the timeframes have differed.
In 2012, census data showed white births accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the U.S. over the course of a year.
There have been steady drops in the number of white births in the U.S. since the early 2000s, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new study has shown that the number of Hispanic births increased from 23.5 percent to 27.4 percent – the only group to see an increase.
The finding marks a trend that has continued for decades, according to the Pew Research Center, fueled by immigration, age demographics and more acceptance of interracial relationships.
The overall picture
These new findings add to national data showing an oscillating birth rate and declining fertility rate.
The fertility rate is the average number of children a person will expect to have over their lifetime. The fertility rate fell by 1 percent from 2023 to 2024, reaching a record low, whereas the number of births rose by the same amount that year, according to the CDC.
The number of births still outnumber the number of deaths in the U.S., but the new data marks an 8.4 percent drop in births, Dr. Amos Grünebaum, a professor at Hofstra’s Zucker School of Medicine and one of the authors of the new study, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Grünebaum stressed that the American health care system is “dangerously misaligned” with “today’s reality.”
“Hispanic and Black women now deliver the majority of American babies while facing the highest maternal mortality rates, yet Medicaid – which finances over 40 percent of all births -faces proposed cuts that would devastate exactly these communities,” he said.
“Any politician claiming to be ‘pro-family’ while slashing coverage for the mothers who are literally building America’s future workforce isn’t making policy – they’re making a choice about whose families matter,” said Grünebaum.
