Births, 2020

Released: 2021-09-28

In 2020, there were 358,604 alive births in Canada, excluding Yukon. Similar to previous years, the proportion of boys (51.four%) was slightly higher than the proportion of girls (48.half dozen%).

New preliminary 2020 birth and stillbirth information is available today from the Canadian Vital Statistics: Birth Database and the Canadian Vital Statistics: Stillbirth Database. These data provide of import insights into the early effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian births.

Decline in overall number of births in Canada continues in 2020

The number of live births continues to decrease, as it has each twelvemonth since 2016. There were 13,434 fewer births in 2020 than in 2019 (372,038), the greatest year-over-year decrease (3.vi%) and the lowest number of births in any year since 2006. The reject from 2019 to 2020 was observed in every province and territory in Canada.

At that place are diverse factors that may have played a role in this decline. For instance, with the onset of the pandemic, decreased international migration because of travel restrictions may take led to fewer births to newcomer parents. In add-on, other social and economic factors from the COVID-1nine pandemic (school and daycare closures, job losses, and financial uncertainty) may have led some families to delay having children, which could reduce the number of births later in the twelvemonth.

Notably, a similar reject in births from 2019 to 2020 was also observed in several other countries. For case, the United States reported a 4.0% subtract in births, while a 3.9% decrease was reported for England and Wales. French republic saw a 2.0% decrease in births from 2019 to 2020.

Increase in non-hospital births during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has afflicted prenatal care and birthing practices on a global calibration. During the pandemic, in that location may accept been added fears of going into a hospital where COVID-19 patients were being treated, leading more women to cull to birth at habitation or in a non-medical birthing eye. In Canada, a greater proportion of women gave nativity in a not-hospital setting in 2020 than in 2019. This type of trend is non new and has been observed during previous affliction outbreaks. According to the Association of Ontario Midwives, at that place was an increase in need for midwifery attendance at habitation births during the astringent acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Toronto in 2003.

Canada experienced a steady increase in non-infirmary births from 2005 to 2015. The number of not-hospital births increased by 113%, from 3,768 (ane.i% of all births) in 2005 to eight,013 (2.1% of all births) in 2015. According to the Ontario Choice of Birthplace Survey, the increase may be attributable to the growth of available midwifery services, a desire for low-intervention births and increasing comfort with nativity outside the infirmary setting. A like trend was noted in the United States, where the number of births occurring outside of a infirmary increased by 63%, from 37,402 (0.9% of all births) in 2005 to 61,041 (1.5% of all births) in 2015.

Before the pandemic, a reject in non-hospital births was noted from 2015 to 2019, after which Canada saw a sharp increment in 2020. Although the number of not-hospital births in 2020 remained lower than numbers from 2014 to 2017, the proportion of non-hospital births in 2020 (ii.1%) was the highest it has been in more than than a decade. This shift indicates that a greater proportion of women were choosing to give birth in the home, a birthing centre or other facility during the pandemic.

Chart 1 Chart 1: Number of non-hospital births
Number of non-hospital births

Chart 1: Number of non-hospital births

Nautical chart two Chart 2: Non-hospital births in Canada, percentage of total births
Non-hospital births in Canada, percentage of total births

Chart 2: Non-hospital births in Canada, percentage of total births

The spike in non-hospital births from 2019 to 2020 was most prominent in Ontario (iii,187 in 2019 to three,861 in 2020) and Alberta (1,462 in 2019 to one,853 in 2020), each experiencing the greatest number of non-hospital births in over a decade. British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan also noted spikes in 2020.

More than not-hospital births in the early pandemic

Although in that location is e'er some year-to-year variation in the number of non-infirmary births in a given month, the increase in non-hospital births well-nigh the starting time of the pandemic was striking. From April to May 2020, in that location were ane,526 non-hospital births in Canada. This is the highest number of non-infirmary births to occur during whatever two-month period in over a decade. This time frame aligns with the onset of the pandemic, when public health measures were put into identify in many provinces and territories to contain the spread of COVID-ane9.

  Annotation to readers

For 2020, in an effort to exist more timely, the duration of data drove has been shortened compared with previous years. The 2020 data are therefore considered preliminary. Data will exist revised with subsequent releases.

Preliminary birth and stillbirth counts are based on what is reported to Statistics Canada past provincial and territorial vital statistics registries.

Data for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 births and stillbirths occurring in Yukon are not available. To avert confusion, data for these same years for births and stillbirths to residents of Yukon that occurred in other provinces and territories were also suppressed.

Equally a result of delays with nascence registrations, fewer births have been captured, to appointment, for Manitoba in 2020.

Data for French republic (as of March 2021) come up from the Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (Naissances et taux de natalité). Information for the United kingdom (as of June 2021) come from the Uk Part of National Statistics (Conditional births in England and Wales). Data for the Usa (as of June 2021) come from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (alter in total number of births from 2019 to 2020, not-hospital births in 2015 and non-infirmary births in 2005).

The reasons for choosing a non-hospital birth come from the results of the Ontario Selection of Birthplace Study (2014).

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire nigh the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-costless 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).

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