The United States’ birthrate fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2018, bringing the number of people born in the country to its lowest level in 32 years, according to provisional figures published on Wednesday by the federal government. It said the fertility rate in the United States also fell to a record low.

There were an estimated 3,788,235 people born in the United States last year, a 2 percent decrease from 2017 and the lowest number of births in any year since 1986, according to the report, published by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Demographers said a number of factors contributed to the downward trend, including fewer teenage pregnancies and the lingering effects of the Great Recession, which made it harder for people now in their 20s and 30s to reach the kind of milestones — like getting married, establishing a career or buying a home — that often precede starting a family.

“Some of the decline is a very positive signal that we are doing a better job of addressing unwanted teen pregnancies,” according to Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. But she said the data for women outside that age range was “more worrisome.”