US birth rates have fallen to their lowest level in a generation thanks to the coronavirus pandemic
Bloomberg noted that birth rates dropped across every race, ethnicity and age group according to the data, which was published by the CDC’s National Center for Health.
The birth rate hasn’t been this low since 1979.
Zero Hedge reports: As we noted at the time, a shrinking population is bound to create serious challenges for China’s debt-fueled economy. It’s one reason to doubt President Xi’s propaganda about China being “on the rise” globally.
Still, declining birth rates are a problem across the developed world, and the US is no exception. The provisional data for 2020, at 3.6MM births, marks the 6th annual drop in a row. The decline will likely continue in 2021, when the brunt of the impact from the pandemic will be recorded, but with a nine-month delay.
Bloomberg suggested that fears of contracting the virus while pregnant, or while in hospital to give birth, combined with job insecurity and government measures limiting social contact and business activity, dissuaded Americans from having babies, according to surveys by Ovia Health, a women’s health technology company.
“There are several factors that go into family planning, and an entire ecosystem of support that enables and empowers parents and parents-to-be,” said Paris Wallace, chief executive of Ovia Health. “In 2020, nearly all of those factors were turned on their head, and many of those support systems came crashing down.”
While birth rates fell for women in all age groups between 15 and 40, the declines were steeper in states that were hit the hardest by COVID-19, such as California and New York. And the exodus from crowded urban centers exacerbated the drop in birth rates in places like NYC, where the constant shriek of ambulance sirens over the summer likely made it difficult for couples to get in the mood.