The COVID-19 pandemic has had numerous and unexpected effects. One of them is the wide variation in the birth rate in the U.S. depending on the mothers’ country of origin. While the birth rate in the U.S. among women born in China plummeted sharply following the border closures and has not recovered, the rate among women born in Latin America—after falling, albeit to a much lesser extent, in 2020—showed an impressive recovery over the past year: by December 2021, it showed an 11% increase compared to the trend for the 2015–2019 period, as can be seen in the Latinometrics chart. 

According to a detailed study by three American researchers published by the National Bureau of Economic Research—a private, nonprofit organization—this trend may be related to the financial aid provided by the U.S. government to combat the effects of the pandemic (a recovery—albeit a smaller one—is also observed in the birth rate trend among women born in the U.S.). A possible message? That, given the right conditions, many women want to become mothers.

By contrast, the birth rate in the U.S. among women born in China remains well below the 2015–2019 trend, reflecting the fact that China’s borders remained closed for much longer than those of the rest of the world.