US births increased in 2021 for 1st time in 7 years: CDC

Source: ABC News

The number of births in the United States increased in 2021 for the first time in seven years, reversing trends that continued during the pandemic, according to new federal data. A report published early Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics showed there were 3,664,292 babies born in 2021, which is a 1% increase from 2020.

The figure marks the first increase seen since 2014. Between 2014 and 2019, births were declining by an average of 1% per year, and there was a decline of 4% from 2019 to 2020. The report did provide reasons for the increase, but Pew Research Center polls suggest women in the U.S. delayed having babies during the first year of the pandemic due to public health and economic uncertainty, so the rising number could be the result of a rebound.

The report also found the fertility rate for women in the U.S. rose by 1% from 2020 to 2021, sitting at 56.3 births per 1,000 women who are of reproductive age. It's also the first increase since 2014 after the rate declined from 4% from 2019 to 2020 and by 2% per year on average from 2014 to 2019.



Although the overall number of births rose from 2020 to 2021, the figure was still lower than the 7.74 million recorded in 2019, according to federal data. When researchers looked at the number of births by race/ethnicity, disparities could be seen. Among white and Hispanic women, the number of births rose 2% for each group between 2020 and 2021. For Black and Asian women, the number of births declined by 2% from 2020 to 2021, and for American Indian/Alaskan Native women, the number of births declined 3%, the report showed.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/us-births-increased-2021-1st-time-7-years/story?id=96765124

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CDC's report (PDF) - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr72/nvsr72-01.pdf