Lowest Number of U.S. Teen Births Ever Reported Last Year

Lowest Number of U.S. Teen Births Ever Reported Last Year

ATLANTA, May 29 (UPI) —
Last year’s preliminary number of U.S. births was 3,957,577 — an increase of 4,736 births from 2012 — indicating the baby recession may be over.

A National Vital Statistics Report by Brady E. Hamilton, Joyce A. Martin, Michelle J.K. Osterman and Sally C. Curtin of National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the birth rate declined steadily since 2007, the recent high, by more than 2 percent a year — coinciding with the Great Recession.

The general fertility rate was 62.9 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 — down slightly from the 2012 record low. The birth rate for women in their early 20s declined last year, to a record low of 81.2 births per 1,000 women. However, the birth rates for women in their 30s and 40s rose last year.

The number of births to U.S. teens ages 15-19 last year was 274,641, down 10 percent from 2012 and the lowest number of teen births ever reported for the United States, the report said. Last year’s number of births was 38 percent fewer than 444,899 in 2007 — the most recent high — and 57 percent fewer than in 1970, the all-time peak year for the number of teen births at 644,708.

The birth rate for teens ages 10 to 14 was 0.3 births per 1,000 in 2013, down from 0.4 in 2012, an historic low. The number of births to mothers in this age group decreased 15 percent in 2013, to 3,108 births, the lowest number of births to this group ever reported for the nation, the report said.

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