U.S. Birth Rate Seen Returning to Pre-Covid Level as Virus Eases

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. birth rates are still declining, but not nearly as severely as in the depths of the pandemic, suggesting Americans are more comfortable having children as Covid-19 cases drop.

The number of births for the first half of 2021 declined by 2%, the same as the decrease observed for the first half of 2020, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. That's less than half of the drop seen in the second half of 2020.

“This difference between patterns seen for the first six months of 2021 and earlier years suggests that the magnitude of the downward trend seen in the second half of 2020 and January of 2021 may have begun to wane and declines in the number of births may be returning to pre-pandemic levels,” according to the report released Tuesday.

Birth rates have been declining for years as Americans marry later and push off having kids. That only grew more pronounced in the pandemic, as people feared going to hospitals and lacked nearby family support in lockdowns.

The decline in birth rates in the first half of 2021 was driven by a steep dropoff in January. By March, the decreases subsided, and come June, births rose. Still, compared with the same period in 2019, births declined by 65,729 in early 2021, roughly equivalent to the population of Portland, Maine.

For the first six months of last year, births only increased in Connecticut, Idaho, Tennessee and New Hampshire. Those states may have benefited from Americans migrating out of densely populated areas during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Washington D.C. saw the biggest decline of 9%. California, Delaware, Maryland and New York all saw birth rates drop by at least 4%.