According to the United Nations, the number of newborns in Europe and the USA has decreased significantly due to the corona pandemic.

"Changes in the human birth rate are never apparent in the short term with nine months of pregnancy, but as the pandemic continues, the decline in birth rates becomes more and more apparent," according to a study by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the results of which are available to the German Press Agency .

The UNFPA plans to publish the study on World Population Day on July 11th.

Since October 2020, the data from 19 European countries and the USA have shown a “strong decline in the birth rate” compared to the same months of the previous year.

In the 15 EU countries studied alone, the number of babies fell by 3 in October, by 5 in November and by 8.1 percent in December 2020.

Rachel Snow, UNFPA's lead population expert, said: "Most people would rather have fewer children in uncertain times - and the question is, do they have the means?"

This requirement is certainly given in Europe.

20 percent fewer babies in Spain

Spain recorded a decline of 20 percent in January, France by 13.5 percent.

But the differences in Europe are clear: According to UNFPA, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway did not see any major fluctuations.

For expert Snow, however, the factors for falling births are too numerous to explain the intra-European differences - it is still too early to make definitive conclusions.

However, she emphasized that the Scandinavian countries in particular are generally more stable, "while on the other hand Portugal, Spain and Italy are countries that had already recorded a declining birth rate before the pandemic." The UNFPA study does not list any separate data for Germany .

According to the report, the impact of the pandemic is also clear in the USA.

In the state of California, 10.5 percent fewer babies were born in January compared to the same month last year - in Florida it was 7.2.

In addition, surveys in the United States have suggested that couples purposely put pregnancy plans on hold and had less sex.

Internet searches on pregnancy-related topics have also decreased.

The opposite trend was also observed

On the other hand, there are signs of the opposite trend in some less developed countries, the report says. According to Snow, people there are less able to reduce the number of births if they want to because of poor access to contraceptives and sexual education. "We are now seeing that in Bangladesh and we have seen an increase in teenage pregnancies in Malawi, and there are similar indications from Mexico."

The UN Population Agency generally points out that many crises in human history have led to a temporary decline in births in the regions affected and that there has often been a recovery afterwards. Although every crisis is different, Snow emphasizes, there is no need to worry in this regard because of Corona: “Don't panic that the world will suddenly be deserted because of Covid and the birth rate will fall. It can go down for a while, but it can also recover quickly. ”What is more important is that everyone can control whether or not they have children.