Reply #23: Teen births tilt up, unmarried rate hits record (Reuters) [View All]

[Up2Late]

Hey! Another "Mission Accomplished!" :banghead: :eyes:

Teen births tilt up, unmarried rate hits record

Wed Dec 5, 2007 5:26pm ET136

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The birth rate for teenagers increased in 2006 in the United States for the first time since 1991, while childbearing among unmarried women surged to the highest level on record, health officials said on Wednesday.

Across-the-board increases in birth rates for women ages 15 to 44 drove the total U.S. fertility rate -- the estimated average number of births for women in their lifetimes -- to its highest mark since 1971, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report.

The birth rate for females aged 15 to 19 rose by 3 percent in 2006 from the previous year, to 41.9 live births per 1,000 from 40.5 in 2005. This ends 14 years of declines during which the teen birth rate dropped by 34 percent from a peak of 61.8 births per 1,000 in 1991.

The increases were largest among black teens, whose birth rate climbed 5 percent in 2006 from the prior year. The rate was up 3 percent for white and 2 percent for Hispanic teens....

(more at link) <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-12-05T222606Z_01_N05617851_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRTHS-USA.xml>