ONCE AGAIN, AMERICA’S BIRTHRATE HAS DECLINED

 

…The pandemic appears to have had a negative effect on the nation’s birthrate

 

In 2020, 3.6 million American babies were born, the lowest number of births since 1979.

 

The birthrate in America fell 4% last year, marking the biggest annual decrease in almost half a century.  It suggests the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated an already existing trend.

New provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the birthrate in 2020 dropped for the sixth-consecutive year to its lowest point to date.

The birthrate fell across races and ethnicity and almost all age groups.  For years, American women have increasingly postponed having children and had fewer when they do.  That led to declining births among young women and increasing rates among women in their late 30s and 40s. But in 2020, even older moms saw declines in births.

While some experts jokingly predicted a baby boom when the pandemic first struck, as couples were stuck at home in isolation.  But many experts suggested the reverse might happen as anxiety about coronavirus, the massive job losses and the disruption to society that caused Americans to postpone or think twice about having a child amid all the chaos.

Roughly 3.6 million babies were born in the United States in 2020, a decline from about 3.75 million in 2019.  It is the lowest number of births since 1979.  The country’s fertility rate in 2020 stood at 55.8 births per 1,000 women in the ages 15 to 44.

The falling birthrate combined with the sharp increase in deaths caused by the pandemic, could cause a marked aging of the country’s population.  The experts say this if the decline continues to bear out in subsequent years.

The falling birthrate among teenagers was especially dramatic, decreasing 8% and reaching another record low.  The birthrate in that age group 15 to 19 has decreased 63% since 2007. The birthrate for women ages 20 to 24 fell 6% from 2019.  Birthrates for women ages 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 were each down 4%.

By contrast, last year the birthrate for women ages 40 to 44 had been rising almost continuously since 1985 by an average of 3%.  This is as Americans increasingly chose to have children later in life. But for the first time last year that trend stopped, with the births among that age group not changing.

Beyond anxiety about the pandemic, a multitude of factors are likely at play.

Research has shown birth declines strongly tied to economic crises.  The current continuous drop, for example, can be traced back to the 2008 Great Recession.  But even as the economy has improved in recent years, the birthrate continued to drop.  And the pandemic appears to have only accelerated that decline.

Several surveys conducted during the pandemic have suggested a decline in the sex lives of Americans, with the coronavirus seeming to dramatically change sexual behavior.  As it has in almost every facet of society. One survey found that declines in intercourse especially among couples stuck at home with school-age children.  The decline in sex also correlated with symptoms of depression and loneliness.

At the beginning of the U.S. pandemic, women in some parts of the country were not allowed to give birth with a loved one by their side.  Little was known about how the coronavirus affected pregnant women and their babies.

For the past decade, experts have pointed to the falling birthrates as one piece of a larger shift in the country’s demographics that has led to overall declines in population growth.  Deaths have been rising as Americans from the baby boomer generation and older get closer to their end of life.  The number of immigrants has also declined in recent years, and that will carry ramifications in coming decades on everything.  That is from the aging workforce, increased pressures on the health care system and the changing political clout of different age groups.in the country.

In other words, the American birthrate is expected to continue to decline.

Copyright G. Ater 2021