The number of births decreased during the 1990s, plateaued during the early 2000s, and then steadily increased between 2006 and 2016. The number of births has decreased every year since, dipping below 8,000 in 2023 and remaining there in 2024.
Number of Births in Washington, DC 1990-2024
Sources: 1990-2006 from KIDS COUNT; 2007-2009 and 2011-2014 from NCHS, Division of Vital Statistics, Natality public-use data; 2010 and 2015-2024 from Natality Data, Vital Records Division, Center for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, DC Department of Health Note: 2010 and 2015-2023 excludes non DC resident births and includes DC resident births occurring in other states.
New for 2025, ward-level births since 2010 have been reassigned to the 2022 ward boundaries, the trends may look different to previous iterations of this dashboard as a result. Historically, the greatest number of births have been in Wards 8, 7 and 4. However, Ward 8 experienced a steady decline in births since its peak in 2016 and, in 2024, births in Ward 4 surpassed Ward 8 by almost 100 and births in Ward 5 were at a similar level to Ward 8 in the same year.
Number of Births by Ward, 2010-2024
Sources: Natality Data, Vital Records Division, Center for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, DC Department of Health Note: Excludes non DC resident births and includes DC resident births occurring in other states. 2022 Ward boundaries are used for all years.
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