Depending on who you ask, circumcision is either totally normal or genital mutilation. There’s no middle ground. And so, Americans’ taste for snipping their kids seems to be changing. According to the CDC, from 1997 to 2010, circumcision rates fell by 10 percent, from their highest rate in 1981 at 64.9 percent, to their lowest in 2007 at 55.4 percent.

There are a number of reasons these numbers have declined in recent years, one of which being that Medicaid doesn’t cover the procedure in many states. Another is America’s changing demographics. Both Hispanics and Asians, who have gained a share of the American population, are less likely to opt for circumcision.

The US circumcision rate is slowly, but steadily, declining. Below 45% nationwide now.

Medicaid no longer covers the procedure in many states, which leads to substantial declines. The growing Hispanic/Latino and Asian shares of the population also push down the nationwide rate. pic.twitter.com/Uj9FrSet6m

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— Hunter (@StatisticUrban) August 30, 2025

The long view on the data shows that over the last 150 years, circumcision topped out in the 1980s and has since seen a sharp decline.