Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-19-baby-bust-is-here-11614853803?mod=hp_lead_pos10
Graphic:
Excerpt:
A year into the pandemic, early data and surveys point to a baby bust in many advanced economies from the U.S. to Europe to East Asia, often on top of existing downward trends in births.
A combination of health and economic crises is prompting many people to delay or abandon plans to have children. Demographers warn the dip is unlikely to be temporary, especially if the pandemic and its economic consequences drag on.
“All evidence points to a sharp decline in fertility rates and in the number of births across highly developed countries,” said Tomas Sobotka, a researcher at the Wittgenstein Center for Demography and Global Human Capital in Vienna. “The longer this period of uncertainty lasts, the more it will have lifelong effects on the fertility rate.”
Author(s): Margherita Stancati
Publication Date: 4 March 2021
Publication Site: Wall Street Journal