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DI Survey Shows Women Adjusting Fertility Plans Amid Pandemic
COVID-19 has impacted essentially every aspect of American life, including women’s plans for starting or growing their families.
The COVID Family Survey, conducted by Demographic Intelligence, finds that the pandemic has led about 3% of U.S. women who were considering have children to delay their plans to have a baby. In some cases, they are pushing back their plans to have children by several years.
At the same time, 4% of U.S. women of childbearing age now wish to have more children than they previously considered because of the pandemic.
And even with the novel coronavirus dictating so many of society’s actions, American women still rate time and financial factors ahead of the pandemic when making fertility decisions.
Will COVID-19 Lead to a Baby Bust?
Experts are speculating that the current pandemic may result in up to a half-million fewer U.S. births in 2021. In the Deseret News article Demographic Intelligence’s Chief Information Officer, Lyman Stone, shares information from DI’s soon to be released COVID Family Survey. Reverberations of so many fewer births would would impact a number of aspects of life including education, housing markets, employment opportunities, and Social Security. Read the full article here.
Fewer births, children in US to have profound impact at state level
Child populations are declining nationally and in most U.S. states. Particularly deep declines in populations of children under the age of eight are expected to be seen in rapidly aging states with low birth rates like California, Illinois, Hawaii, Vermont, New Mexico and West Virginia. States that benefit from intra-country migration, and which have relatively higher birth rates, like Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Nevada can expect more stable child populations.
However, no state should expect significant growth in child populations in the foreseeable future. Even high-fertility states with strong economies and in-migration like Utah, North Dakota and Texas have experienced declining child populations in recent years as fertility rates tumble across the board.
Florida stands out as one of the few states to see an uptick in births over the last decade. It is one of just a handful of states that DI anticipates will see its population under the age of five to continue rising through 2021. This means schools will continue to see more children entering Kindergarten in the Sunshine State for the near future.
Read our full press release here on what the ramifications of state-level fertility and child population changes will have on everything from education programs to consumer products.
South Korea’s Fertility Rate Hits Another Record Low
The nation with the world’s lowest fertility rate crashed through another record level in 2019. South Korea’s fertility rate declined to 0.92 children per woman in 2019 from 0.98 a year earlier. An article in the Nikkei Asian Review said many women in South Korea blame high housing prices, rising childcare costs and difficulty in returning to work after giving birth for why they are having few or no children.
The country’s fertility rate sunk below replacement levels in the early 1980s, but rebounded from their lows to as high as 1.76 children per woman in the early 1990s. Since then, however, birthrates have frequently fallen to fresh lows and show little sign of moving in a positive direction. Incredibly, South Korea had a total fertility of more than 4.5 children per woman just two generations ago.
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