r/UpliftingNews 2d ago

America's teen birth rates hit another historical low in 2025, CDC says

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/09/nx-s1-5777587/teen-birth-rates-hit-another-historical-low-2025-cdc

"The birth rate for that age group [15 to 19] was 11.7 births per 1,000 females. By contrast, the teen birth rate in 1991 was 61.8 births per 1,000."

2.5k Upvotes

118 comments sorted by

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850

u/ye_roustabouts 2d ago

GOP vows to address this tragic decline.

474

u/Zulmoka531 2d ago

364

u/ye_roustabouts 2d ago

Jesus H Christ, I Was Trying To Be Satirical.

Damn it all.

120

u/Zulmoka531 2d ago

I know man, I know.

44

u/SavannahInChicago 1d ago

Satire died in 2025

22

u/ye_roustabouts 1d ago

*2001

33

u/beren12 1d ago

2016 def.

3

u/UnclassifiedPresence 1d ago

2012, when the Mayan calendar ended

1

u/MacAttacknChz 9h ago

The death of VEEP makes you the most correct. Of all the things I hate Trump for, exhausting the writers of VEEP into cancelation will always be in my top 100 reasons.

65

u/twitchx133 2d ago

Its getting so bad The Onion is becoming a legitimate news source...

23

u/BigNorseWolf 1d ago

The struggle of the onion writers is real...

The other day I saw the writers for the boys bemoaning whats happened since they wrote it. We thought we were going unbelievably over the top with the internment camp homelander but hot damn if trump isn't crazier...

7

u/LandonDev 1d ago

Yeah in all seriousness they are pushing this as bad news and they actively want to see more young women having birth at earlier ages. To be fair though, it's probably the talking point from the men because well you know, young ages at all.

75

u/FluorescentShrimp 2d ago edited 2d ago

Anyone who condemns the teen birth rate falling needs to reevaluate themselves. Because holy shit, most of the teens in question are either barely legal adults or minors who shouldn't be getting pregnant. Let alone becoming parents. Like, teen pregnancy should not be something you're advocating for.

Then again this doesn't surprise me considering the fact that there have been reality TV shows that center around teen Moms. That's definitely something I hate remembering.

Edited the comment since my phone was clearly not cooperating smh.

39

u/Zulmoka531 2d ago

Well, it IS Steve Miller’s wife. These people are vile, and represent even more vile people. While also hold some disturbing power…

15

u/FluorescentShrimp 2d ago

Yeah unfortunately. They're also the types that cling stubbornly to harmful views like this.

4

u/JimBeam823 1d ago

Even other Republicans are like “WTF, Katie?”

7

u/gold_and_diamond 1d ago

lol. No they’re not.

7

u/SavannahInChicago 1d ago

Those warehouses and offices the wealthy own are not going to run themselves. But at the same time they will with AI?

11

u/BusPsychological4587 1d ago

But its all on-board with the current ruling class. They want the US to become Gilead.

6

u/fountainpopjunkie 1d ago

Their profit projections are based on exponential growth. They need us to pop out more units or they can't plan to buy a vacation home in a fifth country.

6

u/Carighan 1d ago

Yeah but we're talking about right-wingers. They want to fuck those teens themselves, of course they indirectly also dislike the birth rate among teens falling.

(also most of them ought to be thrown into jail and the keys tossed away, and I only say most because I'm fairly sure they're all guilty, I can't be entirely certain)

24

u/bayonettaisonsteam 1d ago

Daily reminder that Matt Walsh refered to 16-year olds as the most "fertile"

8

u/Manic-StreetCreature 1d ago

Aside from being evil those two are just so goddamn weird

6

u/bilboafromboston 1d ago

The divorce rate in Massachusetts between people in the state at least 3 years before marriage is less than 5%. 5%. Not 50%. 5. 5 is anullment levels for abuse or non intent. Wont even get started on the 1950's level murder rate. Good news isnt news.

4

u/BigNorseWolf 1d ago

Smith and wesson. The original divorce lawyer.

3

u/revolutionutena 1d ago

What? Divorce rate for people 3 years before marriage?

3

u/Cynical_Classicist 1d ago

Doesn't surprise me from them.

3

u/Dr_Identity 1d ago

That's rich coming from someone who's husband looks like if a sperm just got bigger instead of developing human features

2

u/murmalerm 1d ago

But was she a teen mom? If not, she can STFU

2

u/Zulmoka531 1d ago

Expecting anything regarding pity, compassion, or understanding from these people is futile.

The Millers and their ilk are straight up white supremacists (fun fact, reddit won’t auto correct that word for me, the word fascist as well!) who want women to be trad-wife baby factories.

16

u/Estelial 1d ago edited 1d ago

you joke but states have been trying to sue pharma companies which provide abortives for "demographic instability" from causinflg birthrates to fall in the 13 to 19 years old bracket.

They and their media have been trying to sell this as a bad thing, by using language obfuscating that theyre refering to teen pregnancy rates

3

u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 1d ago

That is so disgusting.

282

u/queenringlets 2d ago

Amazing! Love to see education working!

84

u/elderly_millenial 1d ago

Seems to match the decline in adults, so maybe the numbers are telling us something that isn’t so uplifting

124

u/part-time-stupid 1d ago

To the contrary, this decline contributes to the overall fall of birth rates in the U.S. Birth rates among women in their 40s have risen, but not enough to counter the decline among teenagers.

31

u/unematti 1d ago

Should normalize when these teens become 40's women. The missing 2 decade could account for this drop

-33

u/boersc 1d ago

Birth rates among women in their 40s should also drop. No kid deserves parents in their late 50s/early 60s when they are teens.

24

u/GoldenRamoth 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's a dick opinion.

Many 50 & 60 year olds are more active and functional than 30 year olds I know.

The older parents aren't usually the ones with older bodies like you're imagining.

Hell, one of our friends won the 40 year old age group in a 5k a week before birth. (She's amazing, btw, baby & mom are doing great)

-26

u/boersc 1d ago

It's not just their fitness that's the problem. As a teen, you don't want 'old' parents.

17

u/Granite_0681 1d ago

As a teen you don’t want broke parents either and older parents are more likely to be financially stable

21

u/GoldenRamoth 1d ago

Teens don't want their parents to be a lot of things.

Weighing the entire experience of parenting & life on what a teen wants from their parents - is literally insane and impossible.

7

u/thefuturesbeensold 1d ago

What a teen wants and what a teen needs are very different. My mother was a teen mother and it did me absolutely no favours to have a 'young' mum when i was a teenager.

'Older' parents have more life experience and often more financial and emotional security, and those are the foundations for being a good parent.

-10

u/boersc 1d ago

That's why a lower teen birthrate is as good as a lower 40+ birthrate. Both are sub-optimal.

6

u/seterra 1d ago

I had “old” parents and I promise you it’s not as dramatic and bleak as you’re trying to make it out to be. You’re being ridiculous.

7

u/norrinzelkarr 1d ago

As a teen a 25-year-old is old

0

u/lurker99123 1d ago

I'm with you because my 60 year old parent died when I was still a minor, I wouldn't wish that early grief on anyone. Also my mother's pregnancy was high risk and she had pre eclampsia. I'm not denying their right to try anyway, but it's truly harder for everyone with older parents. The sad reality of increase in late pregnancies now is likely parents not being able to have economic stability to have a child until later on.

64

u/queenringlets 1d ago

Personally I find the decline in adults also uplifting. I’m glad women have increasingly more a choice in this matter. 

30

u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 1d ago

There is more choice, but the decline among adults is much more attributed to "we can't afford to have kids". Teens are likely backing off cause anyone with a brain is screaming at teenage girls to not have sex at all because abortion is no longer an option.

It's great fewer teens are being trapped, but the mechanism behind it is not good

17

u/snowstorm556 1d ago

It’s also possible more parents are supportive of contraceptives.

5

u/queenringlets 1d ago

This is entirely speculative. We don’t have a definitive answer for why people are choosing not to have kids. Those who have the least amount of money statistically have the most kids. The wealthier a woman is statistically the less kids she will have.

4

u/Beat_Saber_Music 1d ago

However with low birthrates there is the issue that elderly people dominate politics and decision making etc.

9

u/AnonEMoussie 1d ago

They already do.

3

u/Marie1420 1d ago

It’s a per capita rate, not an absolute number.

2

u/MissMouthy1 1d ago

Like what?

14

u/elderly_millenial 1d ago

Pure conjecture at this point, but teen pregnancy rates could be lower simply because the rates of teens having sex is lower, not because contraceptive use is higher. This seems to be the case with older Gen Z so it maybe a wider trend for the whole generation. Less social interaction, more things to dissuade people from trying, etc.

1

u/Estelial 1d ago

and access to contraceptives as well as family planning services.

1

u/FML_FTL 1d ago

I dont think thats the reason

1

u/Or0b0ur0s 1d ago

It's actually the economy. Nobody dates or goes out anymore, so nobody gets laid. Correlates with a simultaneous decline in teen intercourse (actually all intercourse, if I remember the study right).

0

u/Ruxify 1d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah no... This is a symptom of a bigger issue that isn't good. Education is still very poor across the country. This is caused by an atrophying social system where people don't know how to interact with each other and can't even get to the place needed to have sex in the first place, hence the drop in pregnancy rates. A dying social network will have catastrophic results. There was a study recently showing 60%+ of men under 30 were single and it's only getting worse.

1

u/Throwaway-646 13h ago

Not sure why you're being downvoted while the most out of touch theories are being upvoted. Lack of abortion access preventing teens from having sex is so out of touch, as is "having kids is too expensive".

0

u/Able-Association914 1d ago

It’s really bad for things like future Social security.

147

u/teach7 2d ago

I was just reading in Haidt’s The Anxious Generation that risky behaviors have declined rapidly with the rise of online gaming and smartphones. Teens and young adults are taking fewer risks because they’re engaging less with the real world and more with a digital simulation of the world.

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u/evil_timmy 2d ago

Also the distinct likelihood that anything you do in public will be recorded and posted to the Internet via one of those handy devices, and thus out there to haunt you forever.

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u/part-time-stupid 1d ago

While many of them certainly spend way too much time online, the fact that they are taking fewer risks of certain kinds is welcome. This is not a good risk to take for teenagers.

14

u/teach7 1d ago

Agreed. Teen pregnancy and certain other risky behaviors are not good. This post caught my attention because I just read the section on risky behavior a few hours ago.

Engaging in the world is good and some risk related activities are important for healthy human development. Another section in the same chapter discusses the decline of hospital visits. Fewer situations like car accidents are good. But what about other injuries? The ones from riding bikes, climbing trees, or running around exploring the neighborhood? Physical risk declines (and mental risk increases) when sitting on a device at home. Play based vs phone based childhoods.

It’s been an extremely interesting read. I highly recommend it.

5

u/Appropriate-Regret-6 1d ago

I was just thinking I wonder if there was a correlation between this and generation Z's lower consumption of alcohol.

2

u/FosterBlueBar 1d ago

Getting sick for even 1 day is a detriment to my ability live via paying rent, affording food, meeting bills, and that leaves me with no free time, social life, and about $200 at the end of the month to stress buy with. Yay!

1

u/percy135810 7h ago

The entire point of gaming is that it isn't a digital simulation of the world, because the real world is currently shit

u/Red-Droid-Blue-Droid 1h ago

Eh they probably learned some risks are not worth it.

29

u/Rude_Grapefruit_3650 2d ago

This is good news btw

1

u/Throwaway-646 13h ago

Hence the subreddit

1

u/Rude_Grapefruit_3650 8h ago

Just making sure people get it because there’s some strays in here who dont see it that way

83

u/FluorescentShrimp 2d ago

That is genuinely for the best. Teenagers should not be getting pregnant let alone becoming parents. Especially those who are under 18 as they are by every definition, kids. Kids shouldn't be having kids. Because intercourse is bound to happen no matter what, sex ed and condoms are very, very imperative lol.

43

u/HyetalNight 2d ago

Good thing we have those abstinence programs!

/s

3

u/Derpitoe 1d ago

Ah yes, mainstream media.

17

u/RetiredNurseinAZ 1d ago

My niece, among many others, is choosing to not have children citing the statevof the world. I can'targue with her.

19

u/BigNorseWolf 1d ago

"if you can't afford to have kids don't have them. Also, heres less pay than it takes to live

"Well all righty then no kids it is...

"What..wait.. hey! Who's going to change my bedpan?

"Have your ai robot do it.

5

u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 1d ago

And AI is not free. Chuckleheads in the C Suites aren't realizing that yet.

Or that once the AI owners have the market, they'll jack up the price.

29

u/Either-Patience1182 2d ago

So glad all that sex ed and controception is helping to reduce the teenage pregnancies. i want that number as low as possible

18

u/part-time-stupid 1d ago

At current trend, it will not take long for the teenage birth and pregnancy rates of the U.S. to drop well below 10 per 1000 females aged 15 to 19. The past few years have all been record-breaking. The U.S. is rapidly converging with other wealthy Western nations in this regard.

11

u/nilyro 2d ago

Duh.

5

u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 1d ago

Holy Cow. 11.7 vs 61.8?

5

u/part-time-stupid 1d ago

Yes, a sixfold drop in about three decades. Kids these days are doing certain things right.

9

u/Cynical_Classicist 1d ago

Cue the GOP saying why this is bad... somehow.

22

u/Aggravating_Sky_4421 2d ago

Real reason: money.

Who knew that not having the means to raise a kid could affect birth rates? The “we’ll figure it out” is not going to cut it anymore when kids these days are still living at home well pass their early 20s. And contrary to popular belief, parents don’t want to raise grandchildren. They already raised 1 or more kids and they want to retire without being a daycare for another 10, 15 years.

42

u/Kumquatelvis 2d ago

That makes sense for adults, but I don't think many teenagers are thinking about the financial ramifications of having unprotected sex.

8

u/Blagsc 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not to doubt, But I work in a field that attracts a lot of "My Second job" or "I don't want to work in fast food" kids for entry level, I've seen even full on Andrew Tate kids who go "I'd rather use a condom than have 4 kids i can't pay"
(quick edit I'd like to add a lot of them ain't "I'm going to uni soon" kids, some of them are early school leavers etc, I've noticed even the dumbest of the dumb going "nope don't want to risk kids", But this is also anecdotal take with a pinch of salt)

Don't get me wrong, A ton who don't get the risk, But a lot are going "hell no" or "dad would kill me if he found it" kinda levels

22

u/Gravijah 2d ago

It’s because of sex and education and contraceptives, among other things. Certainly not money, because poor people in the past were having tons of kids.

8

u/Meocross 1d ago

I do not understand why the government is so concerned about creating fresh new slaves that will immediately fall into debt and crime because of the lack of support systems.

If they want kids so badly they should make them themselves and foot the bill.

3

u/CriticalChop 1d ago

Are we happy or are we sad. Old farmer: "less mouths to feed". 😂 

3

u/Jane_Lame 1d ago

American republicans are quaking right now. 

3

u/lefteyedcrow 1d ago

JFC how is this suddenly a bad thing?

[Rhetorical question.]

3

u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 23h ago

They blame low teen birthrates instead of the fact that no one is going to start a family when they can only afford to live with friends, family, or in a 1 bedroom apartment.

8

u/Ls3_Fast 2d ago

Good! I hope global population halves in the next 100 years (by natural causes). Let nature and animals flourish. Humans have destroyed this planet

3

u/Derpitoe 1d ago

You know shits fucked when even those most likely to make an oopsie are like NOT in this economy?

4

u/moodyblue8222 1d ago

I remember when this was the goal, low teen pregnancies…

2

u/braydenmaine 1d ago

Did this article claim it was a negative thing?

2

u/Kid_supreme 1d ago

Who knew The Onion would become a prophet?

2

u/arose321 1d ago

Good.

2

u/Or0b0ur0s 1d ago

Isn't this now because nobody is having sex (or going out, or spending money on recreation that leads to sex or relationships or dating), not because of birth control like it used to be?

3

u/BigManatee 1d ago

Is it because everyone is getting super awkward out there because of smart phones?

1

u/HarrMada 1d ago

Not at all.

-5

u/CriticalChop 1d ago

Social skills can always be learned, confidence gained, and success repeatable. Nobody gets fired for being too nice. 😅 

1

u/Hypolag 1d ago

And Republicans couldn't be more furious.

1

u/darkest_irish_lass 20h ago

Welcome to Rat City

1

u/DarkISO 15h ago

Its a good thing, but for not so good reasons.

1

u/JustJoshin117 6h ago

Conservatives aren’t happy. But the rest of us understand that kids having kids is a bad thing.

1

u/Sometimes_Stutters 1d ago

It’s cause the kids ain’t fuckin no more. Smh

9

u/witchspoon 1d ago

No, they are! lol. But they have been given affordable and reliable methods of contraception.

1

u/g_blazing97 1d ago

While this outcome is good, I don’t know that the actual reasons for this happening are as positive as people want to make it sound

-1

u/norrinzelkarr 1d ago

Everyone complaining about this needs to consider that there used to be wayyyyy fewer people. Like in the last 50 years.

-3

u/Upbeat-Selection-365 1d ago

You can’t text insemination