Among more developed countries, the United States has one of the highest rates of teenage childbearing. In 1999 there were 49.6 live births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19, down from the recent peak of 62.1 births per 1,000 in 1991. The birth rate of women ages 15 to 17 reached a record low in 1999: 28.7 per 1,000.
Teenage fertility rates were considerably higher in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, at the height of the baby boom, there were 96.3 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19. Back then, however, the great majority of these births (86 percent of them in 1957) were to women who were married at the time of birth (though they often had not been married at the time of conception). The proportions have since reversed; now only 21 percent of teen births are to women who are married.
Fertility rates have dropped especially rapidly during the past decade among black teenagers, from 115.5 per 1,000 in 1991 to 81.1 per 1,000 in 1998. Despite this decline, birth rates for black teenagers remain high, compared with birth rates for white teenagers.
