Sharp drop in 2020 U.S. birth rate

The U.S. birth rate sank 4% in 2020, the largest single-year drop in nearly 50 years, dipping for moms of every major race and ethnicity and in nearly every age group — falling to the lowest point since federal health officials started tracking it more than a century ago.

The preliminary data, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found about 3.6 million children were born in the America last year, down from about 3.75 million in 2019.

The birth rate has gradually gone down for years, but the 2020 dip marked the largest single-year decrease in about five decades.

Experts say the big dip was partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated the economy and may have caused couples to postpone family plans.

One of the reasons for the continuous decline in the country’s birth rate is the availability of birth control measures paired with a growing preference to have fewer children, demographer Andrew Noymer said.

The overall birth rate last year dropped to nearly 56 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age, the lowest on record and about half the rate in the early 1960s, the CDC said. The largest drop was among Asian-American women, with an 8% decline. Hispanic women saw a 3% drop and Black and white women had a 4% decline.