For parents, the coronavirus has forced into upheaval everything from childcare to work to their kids’ education. For would-be parents, the pandemic has changed nearly as much.
The coronavirus crisis has led 34% of people to plan to have children sooner than they would have otherwise, according to a Fortune-Civis Analytics survey. The poll surveyed 7,000 U.S. adults, including 1,700 who identified as “would-be parents,” between mid-July and mid-August.
The Brookings Institute has predicted that births will decline by 300,000 to 500,000 in 2021—a model based on fertility behavior during both the 1918 Spanish Flu and the more recent Great Recession. But in yet another indication that the COVID-19 crisis is unique from past challenges, Fortune‘s survey results indicate that the outcome of the pandemic could be entirely different.
The survey didn’t delve into why people are moving up their family-planning timelines. One couple, however, told the Wall Street Journalthat spending more time at home led them to appreciate the kind of lifestyle that would come with raising young children; others struggling with fertility said they didn’t want to risk losing out on time they need to get pregnant.
But the pandemic has also caused 22% of people planning to have children to delay their timelines for pregnancy or adoption, according to the Fortune survey. The most common reason people cited for delaying the expansion of their families is directly related to the virus itself: 47% cite COVID-19 health concerns. The next-most common reason comes from the pandemic’s associated economic crisis: 26% mention financial insecurity as a factor affecting their family plans. Sixteen percent say pandemic-imposed restrictions at hospitals and doctors’ offices are discouraging them from moving forward.
Respondents to Fortune‘s survey included would-be parents making plans for their first child and parents weighing whether to have more kids. The respondents didn’t identify how they had planned to have children before deciding to wait, but the crisis has put a hold on everything from international adoptions, stalled by closed borders, to in-vitro fertilization, with procedures considered nonessential hard to come by. (Clinics have begun to reopen for fertility procedures, but barriers remain.)
