A two-year climb in the rate for teenagers having babies ended in 2008, according to the latest government data that also confirmed the overall U.S. birth rate declined for the year.
A report issued today by the CDC found the teen birth rate dropped 2% in 2008 and the rate for Hispanic teens hit a two-decade low. There had been declines in the birth rate for U.S. girls ages 15 to 19 between 1991 and 2005. Then increases in the birth rate among teens for the next two years had caused worry among public-health officials that the climb might be becoming permanent.
“This is good news,” said Stephanie J. Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics, told the Washington Post regarding the latest teen data. “It might come as a surprise because people were concerned the teen birth rate was on a different course.”
Birth rates in 2008 also fell for women in their 20s and 30s, and the overall birth rate declined 2%. Officials said that could be linked to the economic downturn and a slowdown in immigration to the U.S. resulting from the weak job market.
Bucking the downward trend, however, were women over 40. Those in their early 40s posted a surprising 4% rise in their birth rate last year, reaching their highest mark since 1967. The data show that the older women got, the less willing they were to postpone a birth, the report’s lead author, Brady Hamilton of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, told the Associated Press.
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