Three-quarters of all U.S. counties had more deaths than births into 2021

A strong majority of counties throughout the United States saw more deaths than births from 2020 into 2021, a sign of the pandemic’s heavy grip on the country starting in the Trump administration and into the Biden administration.

A majority of states, and three-quarters of all counties, “experienced more deaths than births in their populations between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021,” the U.S. Census Bureau revealed this week.

The losses were concentrated more heavily in some regions than others, the Census Bureau noted: “Seven out of nine states (78%) in the Northeast had more deaths than births,” it noted, while “the West had the lowest share of states with natural decrease — three out of 13 (23%).” 

“[M]ore states in the South had natural decrease than increase (65%),” the Bureau noted, while “the reverse was true in the Midwest, where 33% of states had more deaths than births.”

The numbers are “likely an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the bureau observed.