US population growth, an economic engine, comes to a halt

The weak population growth of the United States, already held back by a decline in fertility for a decade, is approaching zero due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In half of all states last year, more people died than people born, up from five states in 2019. Early estimates show that the total US population grew 0.35% for the year. year ended July 1, 2020, the lowest ever documented, and growth is expected. to stay almost flat this year.

Some demographers cite an external chance that the population may decline for the first time on record. Population growth has an important influence on the size of the labor market and the fiscal and economic strength of a country.

A bad year doesn’t automatically spell trouble for America’s future demographic health. What worries demographers is that in the past, when a weak economy caused births to drop, it was often a temporary phenomenon that reversed once the economy rebounded.

Yet after births peaked in 2007, they never rebounded from the nearly two-year recession that followed, even though Americans enjoyed a decade of economic growth.