(Bloomberg) -- Births have bottomed out in some U.S. states earlier this year, suggesting Americans were more optimistic about starting a family after the depths of the pandemic in 2020.
The number of births in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Ohio and Oregon hit their lowest since at least 2018 around February -- reflecting the drop in babies conceived during the worst of lockdown restrictions last April and May, according to state health departments.
Some have since rebounded to levels last seen two or three years ago, the data show.
Births have seasonal patterns throughout the year, typically at the highest in August-September and the lowest in April-May.
If sustained across other states that have yet to report their data, including highly populated ones like New York and New Jersey, the recovery in births could mean that the nation bounced back from the through during the worst of the Covid-19 crisis in a matter of months. A drop in births has long-term consequences for the population growth.
Read more: Nine Months After Lockdowns, U.S. Births Plummeted by 8%
Births have generally been declining since the Great Recession as Americans have been getting married later and putting off having kids. That grew more pronounced during the pandemic, when people feared going to hospitals and lacked nearby family support due to social-distancing restrictions.
The latest national data is from March 2021. By that time, the number of daily births roughly matched the March 2020 level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The rebound suggests that some people who postponed having babies last year had them this year.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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