The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the birth rate provisional data for the year 2020. It shows that last year's birth rate plummeted to its all-time low in the last five decades.
According to the Associated Press (AP) analysis of birth rate data from the last 50 years, birth rates plummeted in 2020 in many states during the coronavirus pandemic.
This is accurate as the data from the CDC tells that the national birth rate last year fell by a total of 4% compared to 2019, the largest annual decrease recorded in 50 years.
Economic Recession Not A Motivating Factor to Have Children
Babies born last year were conceived in 2019, but experts noticed a decline in numbers by December when the first pandemic babies began entering the world.
ScienceAlert reported that birth rates across the US have been falling for some time now, but it is much steeper than in previous years and appears to hold true to parents of various ages, races, and ethnicities. The fertility rate also hit a record low in 2020, with only 55.8 births per 1,000 women between 15 and 44 years old.
Since most people stayed home last year during the start of the pandemic when lockdowns were imposed, discussions might lead to a baby boom.
However, sociologists believe that an economic recession is not the motivating factor to bring in new life to the world. An article on the website of Brookings Institute suggests that financially tough times like the Great Depression and the 1918 Spanish flu led to the drop in birth rates.
On the other hand, the period of recovery after years and decades of war has coincided with baby booms. It coincides with the current analysis of AP that a significant drop in births will happen in the coming year.
US Birth Rate Will Continue To Decrease In 2021
The research from Brookings agrees with the estimates of experts that this year the country will see a drop in birth rates between 300,000 to 500,000 or even more if the labor sector will not recover.
Although the findings are only provisional, the initial data from the CDC represents over 99% of all births recorded in 2020, giving a glimpse of what might happen to the birth rate this year.
Experts said that the pandemic has dramatically slowed down the population growth, with only around 229,000 births added to the population last year compared to the 892,000 in 2019. That means there was a 74% decline last year, according to sociologist Kenneth johnson.
Whatever effect the low birth rate will have on society, it still remains unknown.
RELATED ARTICLE: Rate of Premature Babies Falls by 90% During Lockdowns Could Be Due to Reduced Stress and Declining Air Pollution
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