More Missourians died last year than were born, according to the state Department of Health.
The good news is that there were more births in December 2021 than there were in December 2020, and the number of deaths were lower last December than in December 2020. But preliminary data also shows Missouri’s birth rate for all of last year at eleven-point-two percent, while the death rate was slightly higher at 12 percent. Combine the two stats, and Missouri had a natural increase rate of negative zero-point-seven percent last year.
Meanwhile, the number of marriages increased from five-point-six percent in 2020 to an even six percent last year, and the number of divorces and annulments inched upward from two-point-seven to two-point-nine percent.
