More Than 100,000 Babies in US Were Born Through IVF in a Single Year for the First Time

A milestone that once would have sounded extraordinary has quietly arrived in American maternity wards. More than 100,000 babies were born through in vitro fertilization in the United States during a single year for the first time.

The record belongs to 2024, according to national figures released by the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) in March 2026.

SART-member clinics reported 100,158 babies born through IVF, following 449,772 treatment cycles. A total of 97,549 cycles resulted in a live birth, according to SART’s national IVF data.

Crossing 100,000 offers a striking measure of how firmly fertility treatment has become part of American family building. It also reveals another story: modern IVF has become considerably safer in one important area, while cost and access remain major obstacles.

The Numbers Behind the 100,000-Baby Milestone

SART collected 2024 information from 364 fertility clinics. The organization has reported that its member clinics account for more than 95% of IVF cycles performed by U.S. clinics, giving its national figures a broad view of American treatment patterns.

More information about its reach is available in the organization’s SART member overview.

For perspective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 3,628,934 births across the United States in 2024. Comparing the two figures puts babies reported through IVF at roughly 2.8% of all U.S. births, or around one baby in every 36. The CDC publishes its final U.S. birth data through the National Vital Statistics System.

The share has been building for years. CDC surveillance counted 98,289 infants born following assisted reproductive technology in 2022, representing about 2.6% of U.S. infants that year. The agency’s ART surveillance program tracks treatment and birth trends nationally.

One caution matters when interpreting the numbers. An IVF “cycle” is a treatment unit rather than an individual patient.

A person may undergo several cycles, and modern treatment can separate egg retrieval, embryo freezing, and embryo transfer across different periods. Dividing babies by cycles therefore does not produce a meaningful personal success rate.

From One American IVF Baby to 100,000 in a Year

The scale becomes easier to appreciate with a little history.

Elizabeth Carr, widely recognized as the first baby born through IVF in the United States, was born in Virginia on December 28, 1981.

Her birth came three years after Louise Brown became the world’s first IVF baby in England. A published account of the history of early U.S. IVF documents the development of the treatment during that formative period.

Only 43 years separate Carr’s birth and the 2024 record.

Clinical practice changed dramatically during that period. Egg retrieval techniques improved, embryo freezing became routine, laboratory methods became more sophisticated, and clinicians gained far greater experience choosing when and how embryos should be transferred.

The vocabulary changed along with the medicine. Terms such as blastocyst transfer, frozen embryo transfer and embryo banking now appear routinely in fertility clinics, even though IVF still involves a deeply personal process for every patient going through it.

Modern IVF Is Producing Far Fewer Multiple Births

Images of IVF were once closely associated with twins, triplets and occasionally much larger multiple pregnancies. Treatment practices have moved strongly away from transferring several embryos whenever a single embryo offers a reasonable chance of success.

The 2024 figures show the result. More than 97% of IVF births were singletons. Twins accounted for around 2.6%, while triplets represented only 0.04%. Around 79% of embryo-transfer cycles used elective single-embryo transfer.

The medical reasoning behind the shift is straightforward. Multiple pregnancies increase risks for pregnant patients and babies, including premature delivery and other obstetric or neonatal complications.

ASRM describes single-embryo transfer as the preferred strategy for lowering multiple-gestation risk in its multiple-gestation guidance.

Reaching 100,000 babies while keeping the overwhelming majority of births to a single baby makes the record particularly significant. Growth in treatment has occurred alongside a major change in how clinicians approach safety.

IVF Success Still Varies Sharply With Age

A national record can make IVF sound increasingly predictable. Individual outcomes remain highly variable.

For people trying to understand their fertility patterns more closely, at-home tools for hormone testing for women can provide additional information about hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle.

Age is among the strongest factors influencing success when patients use their own eggs. SART’s preliminary 2024 national report shows a live-birth rate per intended egg retrieval, including all embryo transfers associated with the retrieval, of 41.7% for women younger than 35. The figure falls to 29.6% at ages 35 to 37 and 18.5% at ages 38 to 40.

For ages 41 to 42, the reported rate was 8.8%. Above age 42, it was 2.8%. The figures can be explored through SART’s 2024 IVF success rates.

Such figures describe large groups. An individual patient’s prospects depend on diagnosis, ovarian reserve, sperm factors, treatment history, whether donor eggs are used, and several clinical considerations.

The CDC also estimates that 19% of married women ages 15 to 49 with no previous births are unable to become pregnant after a year of trying.

Fertility difficulties therefore affect a substantial population long before IVF enters the conversation. The agency provides additional context in its infertility statistics and guidance.

Cost Remains a Major Barrier to IVF

Medical progress has expanded what fertility clinics can accomplish. Financial access remains far less consistent.

ASRM estimated in a 2025 committee opinion that a single IVF cycle in the United States can cost approximately $15,000 to $25,000. Patients who require repeated treatment can face considerably larger bills. The estimate appears in ASRM’s guidance on improving fertility care access.

Insurance coverage varies dramatically according to state, employer, and health plan. KFF reported that, as of November 2025, 23 states required some form of private insurance coverage for infertility services.

Requirements differ widely in eligibility, treatments covered, and exemptions, and a state mandate does not guarantee comprehensive IVF coverage for every resident. KFF maintains a state fertility coverage tracker showing those differences.

Federal policy remained active during 2026 as lawmakers and regulators considered ways to expand fertility benefits. Nationwide comprehensive IVF coverage had yet to become the standard, leaving geography and employment capable of influencing access almost as much as medical need.

A Record That Shows How Ordinary IVF Has Become

One hundred thousand IVF babies in a year represents thousands of different stories: years of infertility for some parents, fertility preservation after cancer treatment for others, donor eggs or sperm, same-sex family building, or people pursuing parenthood on their own.

For reproductive medicine, 100,158 is a marker of scale. IVF has traveled from an experimental procedure producing America’s first IVF baby in 1981 to a treatment associated with roughly one in every few dozen births.

The next important milestones may have less to do with increasingly large birth counts. Lower treatment costs, broader insurance coverage, continued reductions in multiple pregnancies and better outcomes across patient groups could shape the next phase of American fertility care.

The six-figure threshold shows how far IVF has already traveled. For more than 100,000 babies born in 2024, that medical history became something much simpler: a birthday.