As Canadians face the possibility of being alone with their significant other for the foreseeable future due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, some say marital discord is more likely than the kind of intimacy that would lead to a baby boom nine months from now.
Disaster sometimes brings people closer together — pregnancy rates were up slightly following 9/11, and after the well documented power blackout in New York in 1977 the city experienced a small surge in the birthrate.
But that’s unlikely to happen here, says Tom McCormack, a business economist from Metro Economics in Burlington, Ont., who assesses recent and future metropolitan area economic and demographic change.
“I think the blip that did occur way, way, way back in 1977 was a very, very small one. It was barely traceable but it made a good news story,” McCormack said in an interview.
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Still, many are wondering if extra time in lockdown with will lead to a new generation of “coronials” or “baby Zoomers.”
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