Now I would have thought that the pandemic would have led to an increase in births...it appears not:
Some experts have sounded the alarm on declining birth rates and what this will mean for the U.S. economy in the years to come. In a recent interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil, Dowell Myers, who studies demographics at the University of Southern California, called the phenomenon a "crisis.
"We need to have enough working-age people to carry the load of these seniors, who deserve their retirement, they deserve all their entitlements, and they're gonna live out another 30 years," he said. "Nobody in the history of the globe has had so many older people to deal with."
The pandemic could prove to exacerbate the decline. The Brookings Institution has predicted "a large, lasting baby bust" of at least 300,000 fewer children in 2021. Health departments in more than two dozen states provided records to CBS News, showing a 7% drop in births in December — nine months after the first lockdowns began. Phil Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, said December's drop was the biggest he's seen since the baby boom ended in 1964.
"We don't know if it's the beginning of a bigger decline over the whole next year or if it's just a shock from March," Cohen said in February. "But I'm more inclined based on history to think that all of next year is going to be very much down for births."
I guess there is a silver lining:
Among teenagers, many of whom shifted to remote learning due to the pandemic, birth rates fell precipitously, according to data released by the CDC. The birth rate for young women between the ages of 15 and 19 fell to a record low in 2020, dropping to 15.3 births per 1,000, an 8% decline from the year before. That continues a significant downward trend over the past two decades — down 75% from 1991, the most recent peak.
Some experts have sounded the alarm on declining birth rates and what this will mean for the U.S. economy in the years to come. In a recent interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil, Dowell Myers, who studies demographics at the University of Southern California, called the phenomenon a "crisis.
"We need to have enough working-age people to carry the load of these seniors, who deserve their retirement, they deserve all their entitlements, and they're gonna live out another 30 years," he said. "Nobody in the history of the globe has had so many older people to deal with."
The pandemic could prove to exacerbate the decline. The Brookings Institution has predicted "a large, lasting baby bust" of at least 300,000 fewer children in 2021. Health departments in more than two dozen states provided records to CBS News, showing a 7% drop in births in December — nine months after the first lockdowns began. Phil Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, said December's drop was the biggest he's seen since the baby boom ended in 1964.
"We don't know if it's the beginning of a bigger decline over the whole next year or if it's just a shock from March," Cohen said in February. "But I'm more inclined based on history to think that all of next year is going to be very much down for births."
I guess there is a silver lining:
Among teenagers, many of whom shifted to remote learning due to the pandemic, birth rates fell precipitously, according to data released by the CDC. The birth rate for young women between the ages of 15 and 19 fell to a record low in 2020, dropping to 15.3 births per 1,000, an 8% decline from the year before. That continues a significant downward trend over the past two decades — down 75% from 1991, the most recent peak.
