Teen birthrate hits low; Arkansas trails

The birthrate among American teenagers, once at crisis levels in the 1990s, has fallen to an all-time low, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The decline in the past decade has occurred in all regions in the country and among all races. But the most radical changes have been among Hispanic and black teens, whose birthrates have dropped nearly 50 percent since 2006.

"Despite this historic progress, profound disparities remain," said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

The teen birthrate has been falling since 1991, which experts attribute to more teens using birth control and more waiting until they are older to have sex. But in the new report, the CDC focused on 2006 through 2014, when the fall was steepest.

The agency saw declines in every state and in every racial and ethnic group.

The recent drops in the black and Hispanic teen birthrates look more dramatic, in part because they started at far higher rate, Albert said. The Hispanic rate fell 51 percent -- from 77 to 38 births per 1,000 Hispanic girls ages 15 to 19. The black rate fell 44 percent -- from 62 to 35 per 1,000.

The white rate fell 37 percent, from 27 to 17 per 1,000.

Teen births have been declining across the country though the drop has been greater in some states than others. The teen birthrate fell nearly 50 percent in Arizona, Colorado and Connecticut, but only about 13 percent in North Dakota and 15 percent in West Virginia.

Theories on the reasons for the dramatic shift include everything from new approaches to sex education to the widespread availability of broadband Internet. But most experts agree on the two major causes.

The first cause may be obvious: Today's teens enjoy better access to contraception and more convenient contraception than their predecessors.

But the second cause is something that goes against the conventional wisdom. It's that teens -- despite their portrayal in popular TV and movies -- are having less sex.

"There has been a change in social norms that has happened in the past 20 years, and the idea of not having sex or delaying sex is now something that can be OK," said Bill Albert, chief program officer for the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Albert called the milestone "one of the greatest success stories of the past two decades" in public health.

But while the overall national trend is positive, large racial and ethnic, regional and socioeconomic disparities remain. The birthrates for Hispanic and black teens still are twice as high as that of white teens.

In Arkansas, the report found the birthrate among teenagers, age 15-19, fell 31.4 percent between 2006-07 and 2013-14, from about 60.5 to 41.5 births per 1,000 teens.

But that 41.5 rate for Arkansas was the highest in the country.

The national rate was 25.4 births per 1,000 teens.

The CDC analysis also noted that the places with the highest birthrates tend to have higher unemployment, lower income and less education.

"The United States has made remarkable progress in reducing both teen pregnancy and racial and ethnic differences, but the reality is, too many American teens are still having babies," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement.

About 4 million babies were born in the United States in 2014. Of those, about 250,000 were born to mothers ages 15 to 19.

Information for this article was contributed by Ariana Eunjung Cha of The Washington Post, by Mike Stobbe of The Associated Press and by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 04/30/2016

Upcoming Events