Teen Birth Rate Up in 26 States in 2006
Highest rates in South, Southwest; lowest rates in Northeast, government reports
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- The teen birth rate in the United States increased in 26 of the 50 states in 2006, representing almost every region of the country, according to a new government report.
Back in December 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the teen birth rate for the entire nation had increased for the first time in 15 years in 2006 -- from 40.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 in 2005 to 41.9 in 2006. Those statistics were based on 99 percent of all birth certificates in the United States for 2006, the agency said.
The latest report, released Wednesday by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, includes state-by-state teen birth rate statistics based on all birth certificates issued in 2006.
The report revealed that teen birth rates were highest in the South and Southwest, with the highest rate recorded in Mississippi (68.4), followed by New Mexico (64.1) and Texas (63.1).
Teen birth rates for 2006 were lowest in the Northeast, with the lowest rates in New Hampshire (18.7), Vermont (20.8), and Massachusetts (21.3), according to the report, Births: Final Data for 2006.
The only states reporting a decrease in teen birth rates between 2005 and 2006 were North Dakota, Rhode Island and New York, the report said.
The birth rate for teens 15 to 19 years old increased 3 percent in 2006, interrupting the 14-year period of continuous decline from 1991 through 2005. Only the rate for the youngest teens declined in 2006, to 0.6 per 1,000 females aged 10 to 14 years. The rates for teens 15 to 17 and 18 to 19 years old rose 3 to 4 percent each. These increases followed declines of 45 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in the rates between 1991 and 2005, according to the report.
Between 2005 and 2006, birth rates increased 3 percent to 5 percent each for non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and American Indian or Alaska Native teens and 2 percent for Hispanic teens. The rate for Asian or Pacific Islander teens was unchanged, the report said.
More information
For more on teen pregnancy visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
More From USNews.com
Reader Comments
The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality
The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality
These issues continue to impact US society due to politics trumping science, and our culture of selling sex, but avoiding talking about sex.
I used a great resouce to overcome some of my own inhibitions about talking and educating my own kids about sex called, The Underground Guide to Teenage Sexuality. I think it's available in Spanish also. But my teens and I now have a very open relationship to talk about these issues, and I sleep much better at night.
Shocking
Wait, I don't understand. We're preaching abstinence to them, and pregnancy rates are going UP? But my pastor said abstinence-only education would keep kids from having sex, and he wouldn't lie to me, would he?
Act
Everyone who has commented on this seems rather opinionated, but yall seem to agree that teen pregnancy isn't a thing we want for our children.
So instead of writing crazy things on a message bored, why don't we do something about it?
React, and make a difference, things don't change till we all take responsibility and make the change. Hate to be cliche, but when it comes to sex knowledge is power. And I think more than anything these sad statistics show an increased ignorance among our children and a failure on the part of our education system (which quite frankly is more the issue here than weather sex is good or bad).
I don't think throwing Bible verses, or insults at the southern regions of our nation are going to help either.
United we stand, divided we fall.
And in closing I encourage all of you to do something to make the difference you want to see on this topic. Write an email to your senator, organize an educational session for parents of teens about sex, talk to your own children about sex, do whatever you actively can to help and whatever you do don't give up.
advertisement
