As per the CDC’s latest revelation, the U.S has reached “below replacement levels,” a point where more people die every day than are born. And with the news, the question raises that whatever is causing this decline, does it have an impact on U.S population control goals?
The birth and fertility rates, as per CDC, have dropped to record lows since 1979, and it is the sixth year in a row that the U.S is seeing this decline in the birth rates. The year 2020 exceeded the general 2% decline rate and the graphs went down by 4% compared to the data from 2019. A similar 4% decline was seen in total fertility rates in 2020 compared to the statistics from 2019.
CDC said that COVID-19 is not the only factor accounting for this decline, although, the data they took was of the New York Women who gave birth outside the five boroughs, given the pandemic situation. Most women left the city to give birth from March through November in the previous year. The data shows that out-of-town births were 2.5 times higher in 2020 compared to 2019.
The findings, however, are that the births declined 3% for Hispanic women and 4% for white women from 2019 to 2020. The graphs also showed teen birth rates hitting record lows, and it was found that births to 15-17 years old felt by 6% and births to 18-19 years old felt by 7%. Birth rates fell for women between 20 to 39 years of age, however, the declining percentage varied for different brackets.
Researchers say that the record lows in birth rates could represent a lack of necessary resources like food and housing among those areas, with the link between the rise in unemployment rates and the decreasing birth rates.
The data based on which the CDC announced the decline in birth rates was taken from population figures from the 2010 census. It also counts all birth records processed by the National Center for Health Statistics as of Feb 11 and includes all registered births that took place in 2020.