Teen birth rate falls to historic low

Despite the popularity of MTV’s hit show ‘16 and Pregnant’ the teen birth rate in the United States is at an all-time low.

Of the nearly 4 million babies born in the United States in 2010 (the most recent full year of data available), fewer than 375,000 were to mothers under the age of 20...

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Highlights:

• Highest teen birth rate in Mississippi (55 births per 1,000 women age 15-19)
• Lowest rate in New Hampshire (15.7 per 1,000)
• Pregnancy, abortion, and fetal death rate also fell, suggesting contraceptive use is to credit for the decline in births
• National rate in 2010 (17.3) is less than half the teen birth rate in 1991 (38.6) for mothers age 15-17

Data source: "Births: Final Data for 2010." August 2012. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.