Fewer people are having babies in Canada and the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The majority of Canadian and American women under age 40 do not yet have children, signalling a broad shift in when and whether people are choosing to have families.

Both countries now face a deepening fertility crisis. For Canada, it’s stark, with the country hitting a record-low fertility rate of 1.25 children per woman in 2024, putting it on the ultra-low fertility list — below 1.30 — alongside Japan, Singapore and Spain.

The American fertility rate isn’t as low, but it just dipped to a new record: 1.6 children per woman.

“The biggest decline we see in fertility is actually not of third births or second births,” says Lyman Stone, a demographer with the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies. “It’s the first births.”

Canada and the U.S. are far from alone — most wealthy Western countries have seen fertility rates decline since the 1970s. But it does mean the West is not producing children near the replacement level for a modern society, which relies on young workers to cover the costs of older generations.

Researchers point to various causes, and some disagree about policy solutions, but they all agree that while the U.S. and Canada want more babies, neither government is doing what needs to be done to boost fertility.