This Isn't Your Grandparents’ Baby Boom

The US birth rate rose last year for the first time since 2014, but still remained below pre-pandemic levels, according to provisional CDC data published yesterday.

🔢 By the numbers... Before last year, US births had fallen an average of 2% per year since 2014, including twice that much in the first year of the pandemic.

• Nearly 3.7 million babies were born in the US in 2021 – a 1% rise from the previous year's record low.
• Birth rates increased for all age groups 25+, but fell for women aged 15-24.
• The rate of premature births rose to 10.1%, its highest reported level since national data became available; the overall C-section rate also increased slightly to 32.1%.

Overall, the birth rate sits at 1.66 per woman, still below the replacement level of 2.1 (aka the level at which the population will replace itself).

🌍 Zoom out: The world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century for the first time in modern history, due in large part to falling global fertility rates.

• Birth rates are falling in many European countries, as well as in China. More than half of the global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa – and by 2100, the continent is projected to host five of the world’s 10 largest countries.

+For us visual learners…👇