The average age of new mothers in the U.S. is increasing, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A report from the agency revealed an uptick of nearly a year, rising from 26.6 in 2016 to 27.5 in 2023.
“All racial and ethnic groups saw an increase in mean age at first birth of 0.4 to 1.4 years,” the National Vital Statistics System authors wrote. The system provides the most complete data on births and deaths in the U.S.
The results indicate a continual trend over the past several decades, they noted, with the average age jumping or remaining stable every year since 1970. The spike reflects changes in social, political, education and economic factors.
More women are working now than ever before and there have been fewer teenaged pregnancies. It’s also more expensive than ever to have children.
In fact, many people are choosing not to have kids because of that cost and fears over climate change.
While the report did not get into regional break downs, it looked at changes by urbanicity. In 2016 to 2023, the same 0.9-year increase was found across large central, large fringe, and medium metropolitan areas. For small metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, the change was just 0.7 years.
“Mothers living in large fringe or large central metropolitan areas had the highest mean age at first birth (27.6 in 2016 and 28.5 in 2023),” they found. Whereas, those in noncore areas had the lowest average age at first birth, until 25 years old.
The report also analyzed the breakdown by race, finding that Asian American mothers had the largest increase in average age, at 1.4 years. They also had the highest average age at first birth in 2016 and 2023, at 30.1 and 31.5 years, respectively.
Conversely, American Indian and Alaska Native mothers had the lowest mean age at first birth in 2016 and 2023, at 23.2 and 24.2 years old.
“The increase in the mean age of mothers from 2016 to 2023 is the result of declines in first births to mothers younger than 25 and increases in first births to mothers age 30 and older,” the authors noted.
“The ongoing rise in the age of mothers at first birth reflects changes in childbearing for U.S. families,” the report said.