CoVid-19 claimed another victim in 2020: The American family.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the birth rate in the US fell by four percent in 2020 — the largest yearly drop in fifty years.

Across the board in every demographic in the study saw the number of birth fall.

• About 3.6 million babies were born in the US in 2020, down from about 3.75 million in 2019. The number was down from a recent high in 2007 when the US recorded 4.3 million births.
• The US birth rate dropped to about 56 births per 1,000 women of child-bearing age, the lowest rate on record. The rate is about half of what it was in the early 1960s.
• The birth rate for 15- to 19-year-olds dropped 8 percent from the rate in 2019. It has fallen almost every year since 1991.
• Birth rates fell 8 percent for Asian-American women; 3 percent for Hispanic women; 4 percent for black and white women; and 6 percent for mothers who were American Indian or Alaskan native.

Previously America was one of a few developed countries with a fertility rate above the 2.1 children per woman, which ensured positive population growth.

But the rate has been sliding for more than 10 years and last year dropped to about 1.6, the lowest rate on record. The figures suggest that the current generation will not have enough children to replace itself.

“The fact that you saw declines in births even for older moms is quite striking,” the lead author of the study, Brady Hamilton, said.

There is no available to data to count how many babies have been born since the national lock down began last March.

Perhaps with so many adults working from home during much of 2020, the number of births in 2021 will rebound.