For the first time in the last seven years, the year-over-year birth rate in the US increased. Although the increase was minimal (1% from 2020 to 2021), it’s still a move away from years of declining numbers. The Centers for Health Statistics does not report on specifics of why the rate increased.
The pandemic may have contributed to a decrease in the rate of babies born, dropping 4% between 2019 and 2020. The combination of fewer births and an increase of deaths in 2020 due to COVID-19 impacted the nation’s population growth. The Census Bureau measured a 0.4% annual population growth rate in 2020, the lowest annual growth rate since 1918.
The general fertility rate — the number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age — also increased for the first time since 2014. In 2021, the general fertility rate was 56.6 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44, up 1% from 2020, when it was at 56.[1]
