COVID-19 baby boom appears to be a baby bust. Baby boom to breakups: Here’s how COVID-19 is testing relationships Nationally, even before the epidemic, the number of babies born in the U.S.
was falling, dropping by less than 1 per cent a year over the past decade as many women postponed motherhood and had smaller families.But data from 25 states suggests a much steeper decline in 2020 and into 2021, as the virus upended society and killed over a half-million Americans.Births for all of 2020 were down 4.3 per cent from 2019, the data indicates.
More tellingly, births in December 2020 and in January and February 2021 — nine months or more after the spring 2020 lockdowns — were down 6.5 per cent, 9.3 per cent and 10 per cent respectively,.