Pandemic & Babies
🧠 Psych - 158/200
Reader,
During the lockdown, did people had more babies or not? Let’s find out.
P.S. Would love to know what do you think about this research. Hit reply and tell your take.
What is it?
Arnstein Aassve, a professor of social and political sciences at Bocconi University in Italy, and his colleagues looked at birth rates in 22 high-income countries, including the U.S., from 2016 through the beginning of 2021.
They found that seven of these countries had statistically significant declines in birth rates in the final months of 2020 and first months of 2021, compared with the same period in previous years.
Hungary, Italy, Spain and Portugal had some of the largest drops: reductions of 8.5, 9.1, 8.4 and 6.6 percent, respectively. The U.S. saw a decline of 3.8 percent, but this was not statistically significant—perhaps because the pandemic’s effects were more spread out in the country and because the study only had U.S. data through December 2020, Aassve says.
The findings were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. [1]
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Why do I need to know?
The long-term effects of people having fewer babies during the pandemic are a matter of speculation, Aassve says.
The phenomenon could possibly lead to an economic boom like the roaring twenties after the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Or it could lead to a two-tiered recovery in which some families who were hit hard by the COVID pandemic and its economic impacts might be less likely to have children, whereas others who were less affected or even benefitted might be more likely to do so.
A third possibility is that the declines will amount to a blip in demographic terms, with little discernible effect on the population as a whole.
A few countries in the new study, including several Scandinavian nations, Switzerland and South Korea, saw slightly positive trends in birth rates, but they were not statistically significant. Although it is too early to interpret these data, one can speculate that stronger social safety nets may have offset some of the uncertainty associated with having children during the pandemic.
The researchers only included high-income countries in their analysis because of the quality of the data available. Wealthier countries are also more likely to have access to contraception, and women in them are more likely to have greater opportunity and agency.
References & Studies: -
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-pandemic-caused-a-baby-bust-not-a-boom/
https://theprint.in/health/indians-didnt-make-babies-during-lockdown-but-abortion-numbers-higher-doctors-say/599826/
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