3,988,076

The number of births in the U.S. in 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That's one percent more than the year before. The mean age of the mother at first birth is now 26.3.

Besides the continuing rapid decline in the teen birth rate, which I already blogged about, there are two more pieces of good news: the number of pre-term births declined again, and is now down more than 10% since 2007. The rate of cesarean sections fell from 32% to 31.4%, the biggest drop in the whole history of the NCHS; the c-section rate has decline by 6% since its 2009 peak, after rising in every single year from 1960 to 2009.