Lockdown in March 2020 led to DROP in fertility rates and did not spawn ...

The March 2020 lockdown led to a drop in fertility rates and not the baby boom previously predicted, it has emerged. 

Fertility rates in England and Wales for December 2020 and January 2021 showed 'relatively steep decreases' compared with a year earlier, down by 8.1% and 10.2% respectively, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Births in these months would have mostly been conceived in the weeks following the start of the lockdown.   

Previous data collected by the long-running National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles found physical intimacy between British couples halved during the first lockdown. 

Other studies of the under-35s have found that during the three lockdowns, a third of couples were having less sex with their partner and a quarter none at all. 

However, there was a year-on-year increase in the fertility rate for March 2021 of 1.7%, which suggests that sex was very much back on the table when 'lockdown restrictions were beginning to be eased in summer 2020', the ONS said. 

In May, a new survey revealed that four in ten Britons have not been intimate with their loved-one over the entire Covid pandemic – with most blaming working from home. 

Nearly 80 per cent of married people said their partner never initiates sex and the typical adult rates their sex life at an underwhelming 2.9 out of ten – compared with 7.3 at the beginning of their relationship.

The new data released from the ONS seems to reflect a drop in sex throughout the pandemic. 

Fertility rates are the number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.

The rate for December 2020 was 50.1, down from 54.5 for December 2019, while the rate for January 2021 was 50.3, down from 56.0 in January 2020.

By contrast, the rate for March 2021 was 55.2: up from 54.3 in 2020.

The figures also show that the total number of live

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