Teen Birth Rates Up Again in 2007

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For Immediate Release: March 18, 2009

Contact: ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø, National Center for Health Statistics, Office of Communication (301) 458-4800
E-mail: [email protected]

Births: Preliminary Data for 2007. NVSR 57, Number 12. 23 pp.
PDF Version (586 KB)

New birth statistics released today by ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveal that the U.S. teen birth rate increased slightly in 2007 for the second straight year.

The findings are published in a new report, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2007,” based on analysis of nearly 99% of birth records reported to 50 states and the District of Columbia as part of the National Vital Statistics System.

The report shows that the birth rate for teens increased 1 percent between 2006 and 2007, from 41.9 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 years in 2006 to 42.5 in 2007. Birth rates remained unchanged for younger females, aged 10-14 years, but increased for women in their twenties, thirties, and early forties.

The report also found:

  • Nonmarital births increased to historic levels in 2007, as the total number of births, birth rate, and proportion of births to unmarried women all increased between 3 and 5 percent from 2006 and 2007. An estimated 1,714,643 babies were born to unmarried women in 2007, accounting for 39.7 percent of all births in the United States.
  • The percentage of low birthweight babies (born weighing less than 2,500 grams) declined slightly between 2006 and 2007, from 8.3% to 8.2%. Low birthweight rates had risen steadily over the past couple of decades — this is the first decline since 1984.
  • The total number of births rose in 2007 to 4,317,119, the highest number of births ever registered in the United States.
  • The U.S. fertility rate increased 1 percent in 2007, to 69.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years, the highest level since 1990.
  • The cesarean delivery rate rose 2 percent in 2007, to 31.8 percent, marking the 11th consecutive year of increase and another record high for the United States.
  • The preterm birth rate (infants delivered at less than 37 weeks of pregnancy) decreased 1 percent in 2007 to 12.7 percent, with the decline occurring predominately among infants born late preterm (at 34 to 36 weeks). The preterm rate had been increasing by more than a third since the early 1980’s.

State-level data on selected measures in the report are available separately on the ÐÇ¿ÕÓéÀÖ¹ÙÍø/NCHS website.