Amer Ishaq Soharwardi
Bureau Chief Washington DC
Deaths due to pandemic COVID-19, unemployment and a whole nation under stress yet United States of America is facing another challenge the number of births in the United States were down by 1% in 2019 from the previous year and found to be the lowest in the last 35 years, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).
A report issued last year clearly indicates that giving birth and raising a child is expensive in USA and most couples are even not planning to have a baby just because of this reason. Such a decline in the number of births is the latest sign of a prolonged national baby bust that has been going on for over a decade now. Experts warned the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy will suppress these numbers further. The main cause for the decline in the number of births was identified to be the shifting attitudes toward motherhood. “The fact that births and fertility continued to decline in 2019 despite the booming economy suggests that this is a permanent shift to a lower fertility regime in the U.S. Although some have predicted a coronavirus baby boom in 2021, that seems unlikely,” Cheryl Russell, a demographer and contributing editor to the journal American Demographics. “It’s more likely that young women will delay becoming pregnant during this time of uncertainty, so we could see a bigger drop in births and fertility rates in 2021,” he added.
