More Single Women Are Having Babies

Laura Lindberg, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute in New York City, sees the findings as a reflection of social change in the United States.

"As fewer people are married during their 20s, they have more opportunity to have a nonmarital birth," Lindberg said.

"These changes are happening throughout the industrialized world, and nonmarital childbearing has become much less stigmatized," she said. "What we have is a changing definition of family."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on unmarried childbirth.