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Dubbed the “Millie Baby Boom,” it looks like millennials are finally ready to start having babies.
Birth rates are going up, and pregnancy test sales have risen 13 percent year over year since June 2020, both signaling the “millennial baby boom” according to Nielsen’s data and Bank of America’s research.
The financial institution’s equity research analyst Robby Ohmes suggests the baby boom will likely cause a surge in sales for stores like Target, Walmart and Costco while further benefiting other grocers and big-box stores that carry baby-related essentials (diapers, strollers, wipes, etc.) such as Albertsons, Kroger, Dollar General and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
The most telling factor signaling that millennials are feeling more comfortable having kids right now is the rise mentioned above in pregnancy test purchases that Bank of America found. It’s detailed that pregnancy tests sales only rose by 2 percent between 2016 and 2019, highlighting how significant the recent 13 percent year over year uptick is.
Millennials, aged 25 to 40, are the country’s largest generation, including about 72.1 million people. Often referred to as Gen Y, their newfound urgency to have children potentially shows that hopeful parents are generally less worried about the impacts of financial debts, the housing crisis and the pandemic on our future. In fact, Bank of America’s research suggests that the “Millie Baby Boom” could reverse the decline in birth rates during the pandemic.
In a survey conducted in October 2021 of 1,000 participants, 11.3 percent of those who were polled told Bank of America that they or their partner “are expecting or trying to have a baby over the next 12 month period,” according to CNBC. The percentage marks the highest amount of data the financial institution has recorded—yielding that response—since launching the survey and conducting it monthly since December 2020.
Additionally, live births rose by 3.3 percent in June 2021 — the highest level of growth since 2013, the financial institution claims.
Overall, it sounds like there will be a lot more storks flying around in the near future.
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