WUNRN
Statistics & Report - USA
National Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
USA - TEENAGE BIRTH RATES CONTINUE
TO DROP
Despite a rising population of teenagers, the number of
babies born to them has fallen sharply.
According
to a report from the
National Center for Health Statistics, birth rates among young women ages
15 to 19 fell in all but three states and in all racial, ethnic and age groups.
From 2009 to 2010, the rate of teenage births fell by 9 percent, to 34.9 per
thousand, the lowest rate ever reported in the 65 years for which data is
available.
“I think the current generation of youth are perhaps more conscientious and cautious,” said Dr. John Santelli, a professor of clinical population and family health at Columbia University who was not involved in writing the report.
Data from surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back up Dr. Santelli’s assertion. Since 1991, the percentage of teenagers who have ever had sex has decreased by 15 percent, the number who have had sex with four or more partners has decreased by 26 percent, and the percentage using condoms has increased by 32 percent.
Teenage birth rates peaked in the baby-boom year of 1957, at 96.3 per 1,000, and by 1991, the rate was 61.8. Since then, the figure has fallen steadily.
The finding may run counter to depictions of licentious teenagers on reality television, but scientists say there can be little doubt about the data. “All of our information comes from birth certificates,” said the lead author of the report, Brady E. Hamilton, a statistician with the National Center for Health Statistics, “and we have data on every birth in the U.S.”
Despite a rising population of teenagers, the number of babies born to them has also fallen sharply. Teenagers had 367,752 babies in 2010, a 10 percent decline from 2009, and the fewest since 1946, when 322,380 babies were born to adolescents.
The authors of the report estimate that if 1991 birth rates had prevailed through 2010, 3.4 million additional babies would have been born to teenagers during these years.
Contraception is the most significant factor, Dr. Santelli said. “In the ’90s, it was the big increase in condom use; most recently it looks like it’s an increase in the use of oral contraceptives, the patch and perhaps even the IUD.”
Sex education has also played a role. “There was a major change in public messaging about teenage sexual activity and condom use,” said Rebecca A. Maynard, a professor of education and social policy at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study. “The former was fueled by the abstinence education advocates and the latter by public health concerns about the high rate of sexually transmitted disease among teens.”
From 2009 to 2010, pregnancy rates among white and non-Hispanic black teenagers fell 9 percent; among American Indians, Alaska Natives and Hispanics, 12 percent; and among Asian and Pacific Islanders, 13 percent. But there are still wide disparities. In 2010, the birth rate among black and Hispanic teenagers was more than double that of whites.
From 2007 to 2010, teenage pregnancy rates declined in every state except Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia, where there was no significant difference over the period. In 16 states, the rate fell more than 20 percent. In a pattern that has persisted for many years, rates were highest in the South and Southwest, and lowest in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. These geographical differences, the National Center for Health Statistics report said, in part reflect the differences in state populations by race and Hispanic origin.
Dr. Hamilton said that there was a general decline in births among women under age 40 of about 2 or 3 percent from 2009 to 2010. The much larger decline among teenagers, he said, is owed to their having been singled out for attention.
“You have the fact that teens are the focus of public policies and programs
specifically designed to reduce births in that age group,” he said. “So the
general decline plus the programs have combined to have the effect.”