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.