In 2023, 41 states and Washington, D.C., experienced their lowest fertility rates—the number of children born per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44—in more than 30 years, in line with a decades-long downward trend. In addition, 2023 marked a record low for the national fertility rate.
During the internet boom of the 1990s, the stock index grew a record 417%. That’s a phenomenal return, but it pales in comparison with the return on investment, or ROI, of many public health interventions.
Over the past 200 years, the United States has lost more than half of its wetlands, largely because of commercial development and agricultural practices that drain or fill wetlands. Even worse, recent data shows that the rate of wetlands loss in the U.S. is accelerating.
As the data modernization director for the public health department in Seattle and King County, Washington, epidemiologist Alastair Matheson, Ph.D., MPH, leads efforts to improve the collection and collaborative use of data to help people live longer, healthier lives.
As artificial intelligence grows in popularity, new data centers must accommodate the systems’ enormous need for energy. At the same time, household energy usage is rising throughout the United States. These increasing demands for electricity are stressing our nation’s aging electric grid.
In one of the world’s most urbanized coastal environments—the waters around Hong Kong—pressure from human activities is threatening the vulnerable Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, known locally as the Chinese white dolphin.
It’s not exactly news that Americans are mistrustful of their federal government. What you may have heard less about is that trust in some historically respected institutions has also taken a hit in the post-pandemic years.
The nation’s housing challenges are often framed within the context of cities: Boston’s high and rising rents, San Francisco’s brutal and persistent homelessness, and New York’s cramped and expensive apartments.
In fiscal year 2023, the combination of expiring federal COVID-19 pandemic aid, slowing tax revenue growth, and rising costs for Medicaid led to an increase in the share of state revenue dedicated to Medicaid of 17.8%, or $44.4 billion, over the previous year—the largest single-year rise in at least two decades. States spent 15.1% of every state-generated dollar on Medicaid, up 2.2 percentage points from the previous year, though still about half a cent less than the 15-year average.
Philadelphians’ views of their city have improved dramatically since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, despite lingering concern about public safety and personal finances. In a Pew survey conducted from January to March 2025, nearly two-thirds of respondents cited crime as the top issue facing the city. Half of those surveyed reported hearing gunshots in their neighborhood in the previous year.
After two consecutive fiscal years of widespread tax revenue declines, states had fewer resources to work with at the start of calendar year 2025 than they had in recent years, which limited their capacity to fund tax cuts, expanded public services, recession preparedness, and other priorities.
Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States for three days in September 2024, leaving a path of destruction and hundreds of casualties throughout North Carolina and five other states. Record-breaking rainfall devastated western North Carolina and triggered landslides that left many areas cut off from essential services for days. The mountain tourist hub of Asheville faced unprecedented destruction, including widespread property damage and disruptions to critical infrastructure.
