Birth rates have been on the decline since the 1960s, reaching a record low in 2023.
President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to issue a financial bonus to mothers when they give birth.
The president was asked by reporters on Tuesday whether he might consider “some kind of bonus” to women for having a child. The idea was first reported by The New York Times, which cited anonymous sources who said administration officials are looking into a financial reward to increase the U.S. birth rate.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Trump said in response before quickly moving on to another question. The president did not go into any other specifics about the alleged proposal.
Other administration officials have suggested they favor policies aimed at increasing U.S. birth rates amid decades of decline.
Earlier this year, Vice President JD Vance said during his first public speaking event as vice president that he wanted “more babies” being born in the United States, adding that American “society has failed to recognize the obligation that one generation has to another as a core part of living in a society.”
“We failed a generation not only by permitting a culture of abortion on demand, but also by neglecting to help young parents achieve the ingredients they need to lead a happy and meaningful life,” he said.
Special government employee Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has repeatedly said that declining birth rates in the West could lead to a collapse of civilization.
“There’s a lot of things that I worry about. The birth rate is very low in almost every country and unless that changes, civilization will disappear. America had the lowest birth rate ever. That was last year. Humanity is dying,” the Tesla CEO told Fox News late last month.
In another warning, Musk wrote on Tuesday that “low birth rates will end civilization” in a post on X that was in response to posted graphs showing a decline.
Low birth rates will end civilization https://t.co/KPxBor9lAJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 22, 2025
Births in the United States rose slightly in 2024. Just more than 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data released in March. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released on Tuesday.
However, the United States has seen an overall decline in fertility since the 1960s. In 2023, the country hit a record low of 54.5 births per 1,000 females between the ages of 15 and 44, or a 3 percent drop from 2022’s figures, according to the CDC.
