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.
A growing share of residents ages 65 and older are continuing to work beyond the traditional retirement age as the effects of poverty and limited income place a strain on older adults nationwide—and these issues are especially heightened in cities.
The nationwide housing shortage has driven rents up more in low-income neighborhoods than in the U.S. overall, but in areas that have recently added large amounts of housing, rents have fallen the most in lower-income neighborhoods with older buildings, according to an analysis of publicly available housing data.
In cities throughout the United States, residential rents and homelessness are soaring while downtown office space sits vacant, hinting of a solution that has mostly remained out of reach.
Fiscal stress in the U.S.’ largest cities is widespread. In a five-month span from December 2024 to April 2025, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington all experienced credit rating downgrades.
With disease screening and new drugs, Dr. Alexander Bick hopes to slow or even halt blood cancer progression. A decade ago, the 2022 Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research and a team of scientists discovered clonal hematopoiesis, a precancerous condition that forms due to age-related mutations in blood cells that can lead to blood cancer. This discovery is paving the way for researchers to detect blood cancer even before it develops.
