Another record-low birth rate for U.S. teens
But levels are still far above those of other industrialized nations.
The birthrate among U.S. teenagers hit an alltime low in 2015, the seventh straight record-setting year.
Overall, there were 22.3 births for every 1,000 girls and young women between 15 and 19, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That represents an 8% drop in just one year.
Declines like this add up. The teen birth rate is now 46% lower than it was in 2007 and 64% lower than in 1991, researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found.
That means the U.S. rate is now comparable to the rate in the African nation of Djibouti. It’s also closing in on those of Albania, the Slovak Republic and Serbia, according to data from the United Nations.
But the birth rate among American teens is still far higher than in other industrialized nations. In Switzerland, for example, there are only 3 births for every 1,000 girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 19.
In the U.S., Asian American and Pacific Islander teens had the lowest birth rate. For every 1,000, there were 6.9 births.
Behind them were whites (16 births per 1,000 teens), Native Americans (25.7 births per 1,000 teens), African Americans (31.8 births per 1,000 teens) and Latinas (34.9 births per 1,000 teens). The birth rate for each of these groups declined over the last year, according to the report.
In addition, the gap between groups has narrowed substantially over the last 25 years. In 1991, the difference between the highest birth rate (104.6 births per 1,000 Latina teens) and the lowest (27.3 births per 1,000 Asian American teens) was 77 births per 1,000 teens. By 2015, the corresponding difference was 28 births per 1,000 teens.
The authors of the report attributed the across-theboard improvement to “declines in the proportion of teenagers who have ever had sex and, for sexually active teenagers, increases in the use of effective contraception practices,” they wrote. They also credited “increases in teen pregnancy prevention programs.”