US birth rates rose slightly in 2021 after a steep drop in the first year of the pandemic

US birth rates rose slightly in 2021 after a steep drop in the first year of the pandemic

 

After a steep drop in the first year of the pandemic, US birth rates rose only slightly in 2021, according to provisional data published last week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.   It was the first time in seven years that the US birth rate increased. Births had been dropping by an average of 2% a year since 2014, including a decline of twice that much between 2019 and 2020.   Nearly 3.7 million babies were born in the US in 2021; that's about 46,000 more than were born in 2020, but the 1% increase still put the number short of 2019 levels.   The drop in birth rates in 2020 was one of the largest in decades, and the slight rise in 2021 "doesn't necessarily mean that that declining trend is over," said Beth Jarosz, a demographer and program director with the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau with a focus on child well-being.   Postponed pregnancies or changes in access to contraceptives could have influenced 2021 birth rates, and "2020 was such a weird year," she said. "I'm always a little bit skeptical of just one year [of data]. But in this case, I really would need to see what happens in 2022 to try to suggest that that's any kind of a rebound or trend."