The teen birth rate in the United States dropped by 2% in 2008, following 2 consecutive years of increase, a government report has shown.
There was also a significant decline between 2007 and 2008 in the percentage of babies born prematurely, according to a provisional report released by the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics.
The birth rate for U.S. teenagers (aged 15–19 years) fell from 42.5 per 1,000 teenagers in 2007 to 41.5 per 1,000 in 2008, according to the report, which is based on analysis of 99.9% of registered vital records occurring in calendar year 2008, said lead author Brady E. Hamilton, Ph.D., and colleagues at the center.
“The decline reverses 2 consecutive years of increase that interrupted the 34% decline in teenage childbearing from 1991 to 2005,” the authors wrote (Natl. Vital Stat. Rep. 2010;58:1–17).
The birth rate among older teenagers (18–19 years) decreased 4% to 70.7 per 1,000, and the birth rate among Hispanic teenagers dropped to 77.4 per 1,000—the lowest rate reported for this group in the 2 decades that the rates have been available.
Although the birth rate among younger teenagers aged 10–14 years (0.6 births per 1,000) did not change, “the number of births to this age group fell 7% from 2007 to 2008, to 5,775, the fewest reported since 1954,” the authors noted.
The preliminary estimate of all U.S. births for 2008 was 4,251,095, nearly 2% less than the 4,317,119 reported for 2007.
Among unmarried women, the birth rate among those aged 15–44 years declined nearly 2%, from 52.9 per 1,000 women in 2007 to 52 per 1,000 in 2008—the first reported decline since 2001–2002.
The total number of births to unmarried women increased about 1% to 1,727,950 in 2008, which is about 27% higher than in 2002, “when the recent steady increases began,” the authors wrote.
The number of births to unmarried women increased for all age groups, including women 25 years old and older, but declined for unmarried teenagers and women in their early 20s.
With respect to preterm births, the rate of infants delivered at less than 37 weeks of gestation per 100 births decreased by 3% in 2008 to 12.3% of all births.
“This fairly sizable decrease follows a small decline in the preterm rate between 2006 and 2007 [12.8% to 12.7%],” the authors wrote.
Before that, they noted that “the rate of preterm births had risen by more than 20% between 1990 and 2006.”