For the First Time, Women in Their 30s Are Having More Kids Than Women in Their 20s

Women in their 30s have eclipsed younger women in the babymaking department for the first time in decades. And despite the fact that if you’re over 35, you have to spend the entire pregnancy dubbed “geriatric,” no less.

That’s according to the Associated Press, reporting on some preliminary new stats from the CDC which says that in 2016, it was 103 births per 100,000 women 30 to 34 versus 102 per 100,000 for women ages 25 to 29. For 30 years, women in their 20s had the higher birth rate, but it’s looking like the over-30s have edged them out.

It’s partly that people are delaying having kids in the first place, probably because millennials are broke and children cost a fortune from the jump. But happily, it’s also that teen pregnancy rates have dropped like a rock, which may in turn depress the teen pregnancy rates even further. “We always talk about peer pressure as a negative, but it can be a force for good,” said Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Also included in the stats: The birth rate overall slid slightly in 2016, with 62 births per 100,000 women ages 15 to 44, and the average age a woman has her first child averages out to 28.