In 2020, approximately 3,613,600 births were recorded in the United States.  The seven-state Great Plains region registered 248,528 births in 2020, or about 6.9% of total births in the U.S. that year.  With 11.57 births per 1,000 population, the Great Plains' regional birth rate was nearly 5.5% higher than the national average birth rate.  All seven states in the region recorded a birth rate in 2020 that was above the national average.  Additional review of data from the National Center for Health Statistics provides the following state-level details about birth rates in the Great Plains region:

Birth Rates in the Great Plains Region

State	Births	Population	Birth Rate*
Iowa	36,114	3,163,561	11.42
Kansas	34,376	2,913,805	11.80
Minnesota	63,443	5,657,342	11.21
Missouri	69,285	6,151,548	11.26
Nebraska	24,291	1,937,552	12.54
North Dakota	10,059	765,309	13.14
South Dakota	10,960	892,717	12.28
Region	248,528	21,481,834	11.57
U.S.	3,613,647	329,484,123	10.97

(*) number of births per 1,000 population

Report Period: 2020

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Natality on CDC WONDER Online Database. Data are from the Natality Records 2016-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on July 29, 2022