US Birth Rates Suffer Biggest Decline In Nearly 50 Years During Pandemic - Health Dept.

US births plunged in 2020 for all races as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, registering the largest drop in nearly a half century, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd June, 2021) US births plunged in 2020 for all races as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, registering the largest drop in nearly a half century, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report on Wednesday.

"The number of births declined for all race and Hispanic-origin groups from 2019 to 2020, with declines ranging from 3 percent (Hispanic women) to 8 percent (non-Hispanic Asian women)," the report said. "The US general fertility rate also declined 4 percent percent from 2019 to 2020, the largest percent decline in this [overall] rate in nearly five decades."

The impact of the pandemic on fertility in 2020 varied by month as the number of coronavirus infections in the United States rose from 26 cases in early March to more than 20 million at the end of December, with the biggest declines from July through the end of the year, the report said.

For the second half of 2020, births declined in all 50 US states and Washington, DC. In contrast, during the second six months 2018 compared with the same period in 2019, births fell for 9 states, increased in five states and did not change significantly for 36 states and Washington, DC, the report added.

The CDC said the report was based on a tally of all birth certificates in the United States.