Charted: Virginia's plunging birth rates
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Virginia's birth rate fell dramatically between 2007 and 2022, dropping from 14.05 births per 1,000 people to 11.01, per new CDC data.
The big picture: The nationwide birth rate declined significantly between 2007 and 2022, dropping from 14.3 births per 1,000 people to 11.1, or nearly 23%.
- Some of the biggest drops were in parts of the West and Southwest, with the greatest drop-offs in Utah (-36.2%), Arizona (-36.1%) and Nevada (-34.0%).
Why it matters: The birth rate is a closely watched figure for myriad reasons.
- It tends to fall as income rises, meaning lower birth rates can be a reflection of greater prosperity at both the national and individual levels. (Many factors drive this, including a sense among wealthier people that they need fewer children to support them financially as they age.)
- Yet the opposite can also be true, as people who feel they can't afford children choose not to have them.
- Lower birth rates can also be an indication of better access to contraception, family planning and abortion care.
- And they tend to be lower in societies with higher rates of women in the workforce — though that relationship is becoming increasingly complicated (it doesn't hold up as well in places with stronger parental leave laws, for example).
Yes, and: Some fear that if the birth rate dips too low, it will bring about a crisis where there are too few young people to care for an aging populace. (This is a particularly salient issue in Japan, which has among the world's oldest populations and where the birth rate fell to a record low last year.)
Of note: Births are only one side of the population coin; deaths and immigration/emigration also play key roles.
The bottom line: It'll take a few more years before the pandemic's impact on birth rates is fully understood. In the meantime, it seems likely the overall rate will resume its downward trend as post-pandemic normality continues settling in.