IVF is far more common than most people realize. Since the first IVF baby was born in 1978, an estimated 13 to 17 million children worldwide have been conceived through the procedure. What was once an experimental technique used by a small number of families has become a routine part of reproductive medicine in dozens of countries.
IVF by the Numbers Worldwide
A recent global analysis estimated that between 10 and 13 million babies were born via IVF in the first 40 years after the procedure became available. An additional 3 to 4 million births occurred between 2018 and 2024, bringing the running total to somewhere between 13 and 17 million. That number continues to accelerate as access expands and social attitudes shift.
In the United States specifically, assisted reproductive technology accounts for roughly 2% of all births each year. That translates to tens of thousands of babies born annually through IVF in the U.S. alone. To put that in perspective, in a kindergarten class of 25 children, there’s a reasonable chance at least one was conceived through IVF.
Who Uses IVF
IVF is used across a wide range of ages and circumstances, but the typical patient profile has shifted over time. About 10% of all IVF cycles in the U.S. are performed for women over 40, and roughly 15% of women seeking treatment through fertility clinics fall into that age group. The trend reflects a broader pattern of delayed parenthood: more people are starting families later, and IVF has become one of the primary tools for doing so.
That said, IVF isn’t only for older patients. People in their 20s and 30s use it for a wide range of reasons, including blocked fallopian tubes, low sperm counts, endometriosis, unexplained infertility, and genetic screening. Same-sex couples and single parents by choice also represent a growing share of IVF patients.
What It Costs
Cost remains one of the biggest barriers to IVF, which helps explain why usage rates vary so dramatically between countries with public funding and those without. In the United States, a single IVF cycle typically costs between $14,000 and $20,000 for the base procedure. Medications add another $3,000 to $6,000 per cycle on top of that. Many people need more than one cycle, so total costs can climb quickly into the $30,000 to $60,000 range.
Insurance coverage is uneven. Only 15 states have enacted laws requiring insurers to cover infertility treatment, including Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and West Virginia. The specifics of what’s covered vary widely. In states without mandates, most patients pay entirely out of pocket, which means IVF use is heavily influenced by income and geography. Countries like Denmark, Belgium, and Israel, where IVF is publicly funded, consistently report higher per-capita usage rates.
How IVF Has Changed Over Time
One of the clearest signs that IVF has matured as a medical practice is the dramatic drop in multiple births. In 2000, more than half of IVF-conceived infants in the U.S. were twins or triplets. By 2018, that figure had fallen to about 21%. Singleton births rose to nearly 79% of all IVF pregnancies. Triplets and higher-order multiples, once a hallmark risk of fertility treatment, dropped from 8.9% of IVF births in 2000 to just 0.6% in 2018.
This shift happened because clinics changed how many embryos they transfer. In the early days of IVF, doctors routinely placed multiple embryos to improve the odds of at least one successful pregnancy. As techniques improved, particularly with embryo freezing and genetic screening, single-embryo transfer became the standard. The result is that modern IVF pregnancies look much more like naturally conceived pregnancies in terms of singleton versus multiple births.
The broader trend in triplet and higher-order births across all U.S. pregnancies tells a similar story. The triplet birth rate peaked in 1998 at about 194 per 100,000 births, driven largely by fertility treatments. By 2023, it had fallen to 74 per 100,000, less than half the peak rate.
IVF Use Is Still Growing
Global IVF use has been climbing steadily for decades, and that trajectory shows no sign of leveling off. Several forces are pushing the numbers higher. Average maternal age continues to rise in most developed countries, which increases the proportion of people who need medical help to conceive. Awareness and social acceptance of IVF have grown substantially. Employer-sponsored fertility benefits have expanded in the U.S. tech and corporate sectors. And access is slowly improving in parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa where fertility clinics were once rare.
The pace of growth varies by region. In some Scandinavian countries, IVF already accounts for 5 to 10% of all births, far higher than in the U.S. As insurance mandates expand and costs come down through competition and improved technology, U.S. rates are likely to keep climbing as well. What felt like a niche medical procedure a generation ago is now one of the most widely used treatments in reproductive medicine.