CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Predictions of a baby boom during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown have gone bust in North Carolina.

Data compiled by Carolina Demography showed that birth rates in North Carolina fell by 3.1% from 2019 to 2020, in line with a national decline of 3.8% over the same period. 

Carolina Demography is located within the Carolina Population Center at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 

Boone Turchi, an associate professor of economics at UNC, told the News & Observer that the skyrocketing unemployment rates during the pandemic likely prompted many people to wait to have children.

Birth rates were falling before the pandemic. In North Carolina, birth rates decreased by 0.96% each year on average between 2015 and 2020.