CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Predictions of a baby boom during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown have gone bust in North Carolina.
Data compiled by Carolina Demography showed that birth rates in North Carolina fell by 3.1% from 2019 to 2020, in line with a national decline of 3.8% over the same period.
Carolina Demography is located within the Carolina Population Center at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Boone Turchi, an associate professor of economics at UNC, told the News & Observer that the skyrocketing unemployment rates during the pandemic likely prompted many people to wait to have children.
