In 2021, there were more than 3,664,200 births in the United States.  The four-state Southwestern U.S. region accounted for 521,311 births in 2021, or about 14.2% of all births in the U.S. that year.  With 12.15 births per 1,000 population, the Southwestern U.S. regional birth rate was 10% higher than the national average birth rate.  No other region of the country had a higher birth rate in 2021 than the Southwest. Further examination of state-level data from the National Center for Health Statistics, a unit of the CDC, provides the following details about birth rates in the Southwestern U.S.:

Birth Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

State	Births	Population	Birth Rate*
Arizona	77,916	7,276,316	10.71
New Mexico	21,391	2,115,877	10.11
Oklahoma	48,410	3,986,639	12.14
Texas	373,594	29,527,941	12.65
Region	521,311	42,906,773	12.15
U.S.	3,664,292	331,893,745	11.04

(*) number of births per 1,000 population

Report Period: 2021

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 2016-2021, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on July 1, 2023