The U.S. Birth Rate Dropped Last Year, But Don ’t Blame It All on the Pandemic

About 142,000 fewer babies were born in the U.S. in 2020 than in 2019, according to provisional figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released May 5. But unlike most health news pertaining to last year, the pandemic was not the primary cause for the decline. In total, there were 3.6 million births in 2020, a 4% drop from 2019. The tally is on par with the number of births in 1980. Additionally, the general fertility rate, which is a better metric to show national birth trends over time, also dropped 4% last year to 55.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. That rate set a record low for the country, according to the CDC. Although there were predictions that COVID-19 triggered a baby bust, the 2020 data provides little insight into whether or not the pandemic actually impacted birth trends in the U.S. This is because the vast majority of 2020 babies were conceived prior to the pandemic: full-term babies who were conceived around January 22, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S., were born in late October. And those conceived after March 13, when the U.S. declared a national emergency, were born starting in mid-December. But as the chart below shows, the number of births was down throughout the whole year, except in February: While the pandemic may have played some role in the number of births during the final weeks of the year, the overall picture is more indicative of a continued fertility decline that started years before the publ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news