NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. births rose slightly last year, but experts don’t see it as evidence of reversing a long-term decline.

A little over 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released Tuesday.

The 2024 total is likely to grow at least a little when the numbers are finalized, but another set of preliminary data shows overall birth rates rose only for one group of people: Hispanic women.

The rise — less than 1% — may just be a small fluctuation in the middle of a broader trend, said Hans-Peter Kohler, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist who studies family demographics.

“I’d be hesitant to read much into the 2023-24 increase, and certainly not as an indication of a reversal of the trend towards lower or declining U.S. fertility,” Kohler said, adding that more analysis is needed to understand any changes that happened in patterns last year.

U.S. births and birth rates have been falling for years. They dropped most years after the 2008-09 recession, aside from a 2014 uptick. They also dropped in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, then rose for two straight years after that, an increase experts partly attributed to pregnancies put off amid the pandemic.

A 2% drop in 2023 put U.S. births at fewer than 3.6 million, the lowest one-year tally since 1979. Vermont had the lowest birth rate that year, and Utah had the highest.

The report released Tuesday, based on a review of the birth certificates filed that year, shows the average age of mothers at first birth has continued to rise, hitting 27 1/2 years. It was 21 1/2 in the early 1970s.