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During the COVID lockdown of 2020, many couples "had more time on their hands" than usual.
In turn, many social scientists predicted that this would lead to a "COVID baby bump" or an increase in the number of children conceived during the pandemic. In the end, however, that never happened here in Baldwin County or the state of Georgia, as a whole.
A total of 380 "Baldwin County babies" were born during the 2021 calendar year, according to the Georgia Department of Health's data. This data was based on the birthing mother's "county of residence." That compares to 396 Baldwin County babies in 2019, 417 in 2018 and 430 in 2017. In other words, during the three years prior to the pandemic, an average of 414 Baldwin County babies were born per year, which compares to 380 in 2021, the year following the COVID lockdown.
The trend was repeated in the Peach State, as a whole. There were 123,971 Georgia babies born in 2021, according to DPH, which compares to 129,158 in 2019, 126,051 in 2018 and 126,250 in 2017, which equals a three-year average of 127,153.
Overall, the United States' fertility rate has been declining since the Great Recession and has been roughly cut in half since the late 1950s, which was the "baby boomer" era. Also, the "hypothetical lifetime births per American woman" is less than half of what it was rougly 65 years ago. See the charts below..
