Times change, and social changes can be reflected by data. Numbers comparing data from 1970 to 2006 or 2007 (the latest available data) show interesting, and possibly surprising, trends.
Births to Unmarried Older Women in the United States
Many people think of unmarried mothers as a teenage matter. But looking at the rate per 1,000 unmarried women, the rate is higher among women age 20-29 years.
Year 2006 data, births per 1,000 unmarried women: (To provide a visual reference, a simple bar graph is included. Each 'x' represents '10' .)
- Age 18-19: xxxxxx (62)
- Age 20-24: xxxxxxxx (80)
- Age 25-29: xxxxxxx (75)
And look what’s been happening over time among older women:
Births per 1,000 unmarried women age 30-34, by year:
- Year 1980: xx (21)
- Year 1995: xxxx (39)
- Year 2002: xxxx (41)
- Year 2006: xxxxx (55)
The same trend is apparent among women 35-39, whose rates have almost tripled: 10, 19, 21, and 27 births per 1,000 unmarried women over these years.
Of All Births, How Many to Unwed Women?
Teenagers do lead in this category, as they always have. In 2007, about three out of four births by teenagers were to unmarried women. Putting it another way, about one fourth of births to teenage women were within marriage.
But overall, the picture has changed over time. Looking at it differently, in 1970 half of all nonmarital births were to teenagers; in 2007, less than a quarter were. This drop is due to both a DROP in rate among teenagers, and an INCREASE in nonmarital births in older women.
Trends By Race and Hispanic Origin
Compared to 1995, rates dropped among Blacks and increased among Hispanic origin women.
Rates by year
Black
- 1995: xxxxxxx (75)
- 2002: xxxxxx (66)
- 2006: xxxxxxx (72)
Hispanic
- 1995: xxxxxxxxx (89)
- 2002: xxxxxxxxx (88)
- 2006: xxxxxxxxxx (106)
Non-Hispanic White
- 1995: xxx (28)
- 2002: xxx (28)
- 2006: xxx (32)
Rates among Asian or Pacific Islanders were lowest in all years.
How Does the USA Compare to Other Countries?
Data above are all for the USA. Compared to other industrialized countries, the USA is about in the middle. Scandinavian countries generally had the highest rates; over 50% of all births in 2007 were nonmarital in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.
France, surprisingly to some, also had a high rate. While in 1980 their rate was 11%, in 2007 it was 50%.
The 2007 rate for the USA was 40%. A sample of rates for other industrialized countries: United Kingdom 44%; Ireland 33%; Germany 30%; Canada 30% Italy 21%; Japan 2%.
Countries having the greatest proportional increase since 1980 include Ireland, Netherlands, and Spain. All these countries have had over a six-fold increase in percentage of births to unmarried women.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NCHS Data Brief No. 18, 2009.
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