Data from the Office of Vital Records show that in 2021, the number of babies born in Connecticut was the highest in years at 36,929, a 5.5% increase from 2020.
The 5.5% increase is an outlier, given that for many years before it, the number of births had been declining by up to 1.6% per year. Even in 2022, the number of babies born decreased again by 1%.
August boasted the most babies born in 2021, at 3,425, about nine months after November and December of 2020.
A study of national data by the National Bureau of Economic Research found similar trends nationwide and attribute the baby boom to remote work.
"Many women saw little income loss and even income gains due to pandemic support programs. Yet fertility gains were concentrated in groups such as college-educated women who saw drastic reductions in the opportunity cost of having a child, when they were able to work from home and work schedules became more flexible," reads the study. "The reduction in opportunity costs may have been greatest for childless women, who did not have to cope with the simultaneous loss of day care and schooling opportunities for older children."
The city of Waterbury had the highest resident birth rate in 2021, at 14.2 per 1,000 residents, followed by Stamford, Hartford, Killingly and Manchester.
Of the babies in the state in that year, 53% were born to white mothers, while over a quarter were born to Hispanic mothers. The age group with the biggest boom was the 30 to 34-year-old group, accounting for 37% of all births in Connecticut.
The top baby names in Connecticut for male-born babies in 2021 are Noah and Liam. For female-born babies, it’s Olivia and Charlotte.
Read more: How Connecticut changed during COVID, in 10 charts