[ti:US Births Drop to Lowest Level in More than 40 Years]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:01.88]U.S. health officials say the nation's birth rate in 2020
[00:07.12]fell to its lowest level in more than 40 years.
[00:12.36]The rate fell 4 percent in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies,
[00:19.32]the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new report.
[00:27.32]That is the lowest number of U.S. births since 1979.
[00:33.68]The CDC said it was the sixth year in a row
[00:38.04]that the U.S. saw a decrease in births after the last increase in 2014.
[00:46.28]The rate has dropped an average of 2 percent per year since 2015.
[00:53.56]The birth rate dropped for women in every major race
[00:57.96]and ethnicity, and in nearly every age group.
[01:03.32]The CDC said the U.S. fertility rate -- which measures
[01:08.04]the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44
[01:14.76]-- declined by 4 percent in 2020.
[01:19.20]U.S. births have been decreasing in younger women for many years,
[01:25.40]as many mothers started families later and had smaller families.
[01:32.56]Birth rates for women in their late 30s and in their 40s
[01:37.68]have slowly been increasing.
[01:40.76]But last year was different.
[01:43.16]The CDC's Brady Hamilton was the lead writer of the report.
[01:50.76]He said one of the most surprising results
[01:55.00]was the decrease in births even for older mothers.
[02:00.48]The CDC report was based on an examination
[02:03.92]of more than 99 percent of official birth records issued last year.
[02:10.44]The Associated Press found that births had fallen
[02:15.48]during the coronavirus pandemic by looking at 2020 data from 25 states.
[02:24.96]Experts say the pandemic
[02:27.48]was one likely cause of the drop in U.S. birth rates.
[02:33.64]Fears about COVID-19 and its effects on the economy
[02:38.72]may have caused many couples to rethink having a child.
[02:43.72]Many of the 2020 pregnancies, however,
[02:48.12]began well before the coronavirus pandemic.
[02:52.28]Hamilton said CDC researchers are working
[02:56.16]on a second report to explain the decrease.
[03:01.04]Lorna Thorpe is the director of epidemiology
[03:05.72]at the Department of Population Health
[03:09.04]at New York University's Langone Hospital.
[03:13.48]She told Reuters that the latest birth rate drop
[03:17.52]was in keeping with the downward trend seen in recent years.
[03:23.08]But she added that the change in 2020
[03:27.32]was also linked to "pandemic-related reductions."
[03:32.92]Experts say the current generation in America
[03:36.84]is getting further away from having enough children to replace itself.
[03:42.80]Many European countries have also been experiencing birth rate drops
[03:48.76]and population experts have predicted major decreases
[03:54.08]in babies born across the continent this year.
[03:58.76]In Italy, births fell 22 percent in December 2020,
[04:05.72]nine months after the country
[04:08.60]went into Europe's first lockdown restrictions.
[04:13.48]Some large corporations, including Reckitt, Nestle and Danone,
[04:20.40]say lower birth rates also led to big sales drops in baby formula.
[04:27.32]I'm Dan Friedell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM