Jun 1, 2022 - News
Mapped: The post-pandemic baby boom
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Tennessee births jumped 3.8% in 2021, according to new CDC data.
- That amounts to 81,675 babies born here last year.
Why it matters: The Volunteer State helped drive a broader national trend — births across the country increased for the first time in eight years.
- A total of more than 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2021, a 1% increase from 2020 levels, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim reports.
Flashback: U.S. births had been declining by an average of 2% every year since 2014, per the CDC data.
- Births plunged 4% from 2019 to 2020, the early phases of the pandemic.
Of note: The percentage of national premature births, 10.48%, hit its highest reported level since representative national data became available.
- In Tennessee, 11.29% of babies were born before 37 weeks in 2021, up from 10.93% in 2020.