Data Highlights | Background on Teenage Childbearing | How Your State Ranks | What You Can Do | Sources | About the Data Snapshot Series
The number of teen mothers in the United States is on the decline. The downward trend in adolescent motherhood is evident in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as for White, Black, Asian, American Indian, and Hispanic teens.
Despite the good news, it is important to note that U.S. teen birth rates remain higher than those of other industrialized countries. Teen birth rates in the United States remain particularly high for teens of color and those living in low-income communities. Many of these teens have grown up in poverty, and are vulnerable – along with their children – to further disadvantage and disconnection from society.
Research shows the drop in teen pregnancy and teen birth rates over the past decade is a result of increased abstinence among teens, higher contraceptive use among teens having sex, and more effective contraception methods. Through our Plain TalkSM initiative and other investments, the Casey Foundation has found that sexually active youth who have had informed conversations with parents or other adults about contraception and other reproductive health issues are less likely to become pregnant, father a child, or contract a sexually transmitted disease. Reducing adolescent pregnancy is one part of our larger goal to connect at-risk youth to opportunities that help them succeed.
Figure 1— Number of teen mothers per 1,000 teen girls ages 15 to 19, 2003
Source: KIDS COUNT analysis of estimates of first births, Natality Data Sets, National Center for Health Statistics. Data tabulations by Child Trends, Inc.
Data Highlights 
- In 2003, there were approximately 772,600 mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 in the United States. This number represents 78 girls for every 1,000 in this age group. Mothers under the age of 15 accounted for 6,511 births in the United States in 2003.
- The rate of teenage motherhood has declined in every state. The rate of teen mothers has dropped 14 percent since 2000 in the United States overall. Alaska, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and New Jersey have seen the biggest drop in their rates of teen mothers since 2000.
- Gaps persist across states: Girls growing up in Mississippi, New Mexico, and Texas are more than three times as likely as girls in New Hampshire and Vermont to become teen mothers.
Figure 2 — Number of teen mothers per 1,000 teen girls ages 15 to 19 by race and Hispanic origin, 2003
Source: KIDS COUNT analysis of estimates of first births, Natality Data Sets, National Center for Health Statistics. Data tabulations by Child Trends, Inc.
- The incidence of becoming a teen mother varies by race. Although teen motherhood rates have dropped across all major race groups, American Indian, African-American and Latino teens are still two to four times as likely as Non-Hispanic White and Asian Pacific Islander teens to bear a child before they enter adulthood.
Figure 3 — Number of teen mothers ages 15 to 19, 1995 to 2003
Source: KIDS COUNT analysis of estimates of first births, Natality Data Sets, National Center for Health Statistics. Data tabulations by Child Trends, Inc.
- The current decline in the rate of teen motherhood actually began in the mid-1990s. In 1995, there were 942,900 mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 in the United States. The rate of teen motherhood was 106 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19. The rate in 2003 was 27 percent lower than it was in 1995 and represents approximately 170,000 fewer teen mothers over this eight-year period.
Background on Teenage Childbearing
Teenage childbearing can have long-term negative effects on both the adolescent mother and the newborn. The well-documented challenges for teen mothers and their children include the following:
- Teen parenthood greatly increases the risk of educational failure. Nearly one in three girls cited pregnancy as the reason they dropped out of school in 2004. Even after controlling for race, economic status, and other characteristics, having a child before the age of 20 reduces academic attainment by almost 3 years.
- Given their lower educational attainment, young mothers often find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the labor market. When they do work, they have lower family incomes and higher rates of poverty than women who gave birth at a later age. The poverty rate for children born to teenage mothers who have never married and who did not graduate from high school is 78 percent. This compares to 9 percent of children born to women over age 20 who are currently married and did graduate from high school.
- Children born to young adolescent mothers are at higher risk of being born low birthweight and dying within their first year of life. They are also more likely to miss out on emotional and cognitive stimulation crucial to healthy child development.
How Your State Ranks
The table below show the states ranked by the number of mothers per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 19 in 2003.
Figure 4 — Number of teen mothers per 1,000 teen girls ages 15 to 19, 2003
Source: KIDS COUNT analysis of estimates of first births, Natality Data Sets, National Center for Health Statistics. Data tabulations by Child Trends, Inc.
Find out how your state rates in KIDS COUNT Data Center:
Many of the state KIDS COUNT grantees have produced state reports focused on the issue of adolescent childbearing. Visit the KIDS COUNT issues library.
What You Can Do
The following publications and organizations address strategies to reduce adolescent pregnancy.
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Why look at teen mothers vs. teen birth rates?
Most studies of teen childbearing focus on the teenage birth rate defined as the number of births in a year divided by the number of females ages 15 to 19. This measure understates the magnitude of the problem and does not reflect the full impact of teen child bearing. A more comprehensive measure of those who are likely to need assistance reflects all the females under age 20 who are mothers whether they gave birth in a given year or in a previous year.
This Data Snapshot uses such a comprehensive measure to examine recent trends in young motherhood. Nationally, 415,000 teens age 15 to 19 gave birth in 2003, but there were 772,000 teen mothers based on births in 2003 and previous years. The more comprehensive measure of teen motherhood indicates there are almost twice as many at-risk teenagers as reflected in the teen birth rate. |
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Sources
Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Moving Youth From Risk to Opportunity,” 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book Essay accessed at www.aecf.org/kidscount/databook/essay.htm (August 2006)
Annie E. Casey Foundation’s analysis of estimates of first births from 1990 – 2003 Natality Data Sets, Series 21, Numbers 2 – 16 (SETS versions), and 16H (ASCII Version), National Center for Health Statistics. Tabulations by Child Trends. Link to longer version of the definition and data source for adolescent motherhood.
Child Trends, Facts At A Glance April 2006, Publication #2006-03.
Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, America’s Children 2005, accessed at www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/ (June 2006)
National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education 2006, accessed at nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/ (August 2006).
The Allen Guttmacher Institute, The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 1, February 2002, accessed at http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/05/1/gr050107.html
About the KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot Series:
The Data Snapshot series highlights specific indicators of child well-being contained in the KKIDS COUNT Data Center.
KIDS COUNT, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is a national and state-by-state effort the track the status of children in the United States.
KIDS COUNT exemplifies the Foundation’s commitment to using the best available data to measure the well-being of children and to enrich local, state, and national discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all children.
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