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US birth rate falls to its lowest since 1979 as pandemic-led stress rises

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Bhargav Acharya, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/05/05/health-coronavirus-usa-masks.jpg"/><figcaption>A woman, wearing a protective mask, stands next to a man not wearing one, while waiting for public transportation in the Brownsville section of the Brooklyn borough of New York City, on May 3, 2021. <em>Shannon Stapleton, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses.</p><p>Birth rate in the United States fell 4% in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies, its sixth consecutive annual decline and the lowest since 1979, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&#x27;s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics.</p><p>The CDC did not attribute the overall decline to the pandemic, but experts have predicted that pandemic-led reasons including anxiety will hit the country&#x27;s birth rate.</p><p>In general, US fertility rates have continued to fall over the years as women marry late and delay motherhood especially in years when the economy has slowed.</p><p>Older data <a href="https://www.prb.org/usrecessionandbirthrate">https://www.prb.org/usrecessionandbirthrate</a> from Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a nonprofit statistics collector, showed that the US birth rate reached an all-time low in 1936 following the 1929 stock market crash.</p><p>Later, through the 1970s, birth rates took a hit again in the wake of big social changes including the landmark Roe v. Wade legal case on abortion.</p><p>In December 2020, Brookings Institute said in a report that it anticipates around 300,000 fewer births in the United States in 2021.</p><p>Many European countries have also seen a decline in births, and demographics experts have forecast a baby bust across the continent this year.</p><p>For instance, births in Italy in December - nine months after the country went into Europe&#x27;s first lockdown - plunged 22%, data showed.</p><p>Big corporations such as Reckitt, Nestle and Danone have posted a drop in sales of baby formula, partly blaming declining birth rates as well.</p><p>CDC said United States&#x27; general fertility rate, which measures the number of births per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 declined by 4%.</p><p>This provisional data is based on 99.87% of all birth records registered and processed last year by the National Center for Health Statistics as of Feb. 11, 2021, according to CDC. </p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1678590" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses.<br /> </p>

Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses.

US birth rate falls to its lowest since 1979 as pandemic-led stress rises

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US birth rate falls to its lowest since 1979 as pandemic-led stress rises

Bhargav Acharya,

Reuters

Published May 05, 2021 08:14 PM PHT

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United States

coronavirus

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