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1991.12.12 :  Federal Statistics on Birth Patterns in the US

Contact: Sandra Smith (301) 436-7551
December 12, 1991

       The latest federal statistics on birth patterns in the
United States from the National Center for Health Statistics show
continued increases in births to unmarried women and to older
women, and provide striking evidence of the recent upturn in births
to teen-age girls.  
       According to data released today by the National Center for
Health Statistics, the 1989 birth rate for young women 15-19
increased by 8 percent over the previous year, to a rate not seen
for 15 years.  Births to unmarried women were up 9 percent.  
       "The unyielding rise in the number of births outside of
marriage and births to teen-age mothers portends a future
generation of fragile families in the U.S.," said HHS Secretary
Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.  
     The birth rate for young teens in 1989 was 36.5 per 1,000 aged
15-17, 8 percent higher than in 1988 and 19 percent higher than in
1986, when the rates for teens began to rise again after more than
a decade of generally declining rates.  
       The birth rate for older teens also increased in 1989, by 6
percent, to 86.4 births per 1,000 aged 18-19.  This rate was higher
than it has been since 1974.  From 1976 to 1988, the rate for older
teens had been relatively stable.  Births to teens totaled
517,989, 13 percent of the 4,040,958 babies born in 1989.  

       William Roper, M.D., director of the Centers for Disease
Control, said, "These are disturbing statistics.  When young teen-
agers are sexually active, they are unprepared for the
consequences, and ill prepared to take care of their own and their
infant's health.  For example, almost half of the teen-agers who
gave birth in 1989 had failed to begin their prenatal care in the
critical first trimester of pregnancy."      
       NCHS also documented the trend among relatively older, well-
educated women to make up for previously delayed childbirth,
according to NCHS director, Dr. Manning Feinleib.  He reported that
the birth rate for women 30-34 has risen steadily since the mid-
1970s, to a rate of 76.2 in 1989, the highest level observed since
1967.  With a sustained growth in the number of women in their
early thirties, the 842,395 births in 1989 to women in this age
group was the highest number ever reported in the United States. 
       Similarly, birth rates for women 35-39 and 40-44 increased
by 6-8 percent between 1988 and 1989.  During the 1980s, the rate
for women aged 35-39 rose 50 percent, and for those 40-44 by more
than a third.  Birth rates also increased for women in the peak
childbearing years of 20-29, but not by as great a percentage as
those older or younger.   
       With a 9 percent increase, births to unmarried women reached
1,094,169 in 1989 and accounted for 27 percent of all births.  This
is the fifth consecutive year nonmarital births have increased by
5 percent or more, said Stephanie Ventura, a senior natality
analyst at NCHS who has tracked these data for a number of years. 
She found that births to unmarried women rose by more than 60
percent in the past decade.  
     The major indicators of maternal and infant health--incidence
of low birth weight babies and use of early prenatal care--showed
no improvement over the past decade, according to the NCHS report. 

In fact, low birth weight increased slightly between 1988 and 1989,
from 6.9 to 7.0 percent of all births, to the highest level
observed since 1978.  
       The racial difference remained substantial with black
mothers more than twice as likely as white women to have a low
birth weight infant, 13.5 percent compared to 5.7.  Hispanic
mothers had a remarkably favorable low-birth weight incidence of
6.2 percent, especially considering the relatively high rate of
births to teen mothers and the low percent (60 percent) of Hispanic
mothers receiving early prenatal care.   Chinese mothers had the
lowest incidence of low birth weight at 4.9 percent.  

       Overall, the percent of mothers receiving early prenatal
care declined slightly from 76 to 75 percent between 1988 and 1989. 
Essentially there has been no change in this measure since 1979. 
During the 1970s there was improvement each year with more women
obtaining prenatal care as recommended during the first months of
pregnancy.          

       The 4,040,958 babies born in the United States in 1989 was
the highest number reported since 1963.  The 1989 total was 3
percent higher than 1988, and another 3-percent increase is
expected for 1990, according to provisional statistics.  

       Data in this report for 1989 are based on 100 percent of the
birth certificates in all states and the District of Columbia.  The
data are provided to the National Center for Health Statistics
through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.  NCHS is part of
the Centers for Disease Control, one of the eight Public Health
Service agencies within the Department of Health and Human
Services.  Copies of "Advance Report of Final Natality Statistics,
1989," are available from the National Center for Health
Statistics, Room 1064, 6525 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville, Md. 20782.

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