The Pew Charitable Trust’s State Fiscal Health project shows that Utah’s fertility rate declined the most of any state — by far — when comparing 2023 with the 2011-2020 average.
Fertility rates are the number of babies born per 1,000 women. Utah women averaged 75 babies per year between 2011 and 2020. That dropped to about 60 by 2023. Utah was second only to South Dakota during 2011-2020. Now Utah is eighth in the nation.
Fertility rates fell in every state in 2023. The West experienced the fastest declines, with the top seven fastest-declining states all in the West. The West was the region with the highest fertility rate in the 2000s. It is now the second lowest.
Why is this important? Fertility rates can have major fiscal implications for states. For instance, lower rates can relieve some pressure on the cost of education, but in the long run, they can result in shrunken revenues.
Source: , How Record-Low Fertility Rates Foreshadow Budget Strain: Every state saw declines in 2023 compared with the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2025/07/08/how-record-low-fertility-rates-foreshadow-budget-strain?fert_dumb_regions=0&fert_tile_data_picker=birthb19
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