Nation’s Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low

In 2015, the nation’s teen birth rate dropped to an all-time low — 22 births per 1,000 teenage girls. In 1990, this rate was sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er at 60 births per 1,000 teenage girls.

In com­par­ing total births by teens for these two dates: 229,715 teen girls gave birth in 2015 and more than dou­ble that num­ber — 521,826 teen girls total — gave birth in 1990.

While the nation’s teen birth rate hit­ting a his­toric low is great news, the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter reveals there’s room for improvement.

For instance: Among 18- and 19-year olds, the teen birth rate in 2015 was four times high­er (41 births per 1,000 teen girls) than it was for 15- and 17-year-olds (10 births per 1,000 teen girls).

Anoth­er sober­ing sta­tis­tic: In 17% of teen births on record for 2015, the moth­ers had already giv­en birth at least once before.

Teenage child­bear­ing can have long-term neg­a­tive con­se­quences for both the moth­er and child, accord­ing to research.

Babies born to teens are far more like­ly to be born preterm, with a low birth­weight, and have poor­er aca­d­e­m­ic and behav­ioral out­comes. Their fam­i­lies are also more like­ly to have lim­it­ed edu­ca­tion­al and eco­nom­ic resources, which func­tion as bar­ri­ers to success.

Vis­it the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter for more birth data at the nation­al and state-level:

• Teen births by age group
• Teen births to women who were already mothers
• Teen births by race and ethnicity