A report released Wednesday shows the U.S. birth rate fell 4 percent last year, the largest single-year decrease in 42 years, to the lowest level since statistics began more than a century ago.The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) says the general birth rate dropped for mothers of every major race and ethnicity, and in every age group, falling to 55.8 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 14 and 44.The report shows the number of births fell to 3,605,201, the lowest number of births since 1979, down 4 percent from 2019 and the sixth consecutive year that the number fell an average of two percent per year. That compares to 4.3 million U.S. births in 2007.The report shows the birth rate among 15 – to -19-year-olds fell 8 percent from 2019, the 30th consecutive year births dropped among that age group.By ethnicity, birth rates fell 8 percent for Asian American women, 3 percent for Hispanic women; 4 percent for Black and white women; and 6 percent for Native American women.The percentage of infants born small and premature — at less than 37 weeks of gestation — fell slightly, to 10 percent, after rising five years in a row. The data is considered provisional because it is based on 99.87 percent of all 2020 birth records received and processed by the National Center for Health Statistics as of February 11, 2021. Comparisons are made with final 2019 data and earlier years. 
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