The Recent Pregnancy and Birth Rate Statistics
The rates of pregnancy among US teenagers have dropped from 1990 to 2004, according to a recent report by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Pregnancy rates among women below 20 years old was 15% in 1990 but dropped to 12% in 2004. Abortion rates also dropped by 24% during this period.
However, preliminary statistics for 2006 indicate that teen pregnancy is on the rise again, together with rates of single motherhood and Caesarean delivery.
Other statistics in the report are:
- Pregnancy among unmarried women is on the rise while it is declining among married women.
- At current pregnancy rates, an American woman can, on the average, 3.2 pregnancies in her lifetime. The rate is higher among blacks and Hispanics (4.2 pregnancies) than whites (2.7 pregnancies). This is rather high compared to developed countries in Europe (see below).
Meanwhile in Europe, the birth rates are continuing to fall, according to a BBC feature.
In Germany, the birth rate in 2005 was 4.2% less than the previous year. There were 676,000 children born in 2005. This is much, much less than in 1946 during the Second World War, a year when 922,000 babies were born.
Other European countries are not better off than Germany. Eurostat 2004 figures show the following fertility rates:
- Ireland: 1.99
- France: 1.90
- Norway: 1.81
- Sweden 1.75
- UK: 1.74
- Netherlands: 1.73
- Germany: 1.37
- Italy: 1.33
- Spain: 1.32
- Greece: 1.29
It is estimated that for Europe to achieve a population replacement level, the birth rate should be 2.1 children per woman. Europeans, you still have a long way to go.
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