Population

 Newsweek -  Former President Bill Clinton has suggesting that in order to grow the economy, the United States requires more migrants to counterbalance the nation's historically low birth rate. "America is not having enough babies to keep our populations up, so we need immigrants that have been vetted to do work," Clinton said Sunday at a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris in Fort Valley, Georgia.

Clinton reiterated his stance at a separate event in Columbus, Georgia, where he said: "We got the lowest birth rate we've had in well over 100 years. We're not at replacement level, which means we got to have somebody come here if we want to keep growing the economy." The U.S. birth rate has been steadily declining for years, hitting a record low in 2023. According to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, the fertility rate dropped another 3 percent last year, reaching 54.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. Just under 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2023, 76,000 fewer than the year before.

The total fertility rate in 2023 remained below replacement—the level at which a given generation can exactly replace itself (2,100 births per 1,000 women). The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007.