By LUKE ANDREWS, U.S. SENIOR HEALTH CORRESPONDENT Published: 16:16 EDT, 20 April 2026 | Updated: 13:57 EDT, 21 April 2026 America is headed toward a population crisis. Experts have been warning of this for years, as a ‘perfect storm’ of plummeting births and steady deaths in an increasingly aging population drive the trend. Fatalities are expected to outpace births nationwide by 2030. Overall, America’s population grew by just 0.5 percent in 2025, one of the lowest rates on record . It was only lower during the COVID pandemic, with a 0.1 percent growth rate in 2021. Separate provisional data released this week showed that the US fertility rate has dropped to another record low. Data published in 2025 showed women on average had 1.6 births each in 2023, well below the 2.1 needed to sustain population growth. In 2025, the US recorded 53.1 births for every 1,000 women of childbearing age, down from the previous year’s record-low of 53.8 per 1,000. In 2000, the rate was 67.5. Analyzing data that was released last year, economists previously warned that America’s natural-born population could edge toward extinction in just 500 years. However, for some US counties, depopulation is a much

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