Teen Mothers Socio-Demographic Characteristic and Risk Factors
Government Accounting Office

Although the birth rate for teenage women decreased 41 percent from the late 1950s to 1995 - paralleling the decline in the U.S. birth rate - the number of babies born to teenagers is still high (about 512,000 in 1995). Births to unmarried teenage mothers, however, more than quintupled as a proportion of total teen births over the same period. As of 1995, the teen birth rate was about 57 per thousand; however, rates varied considerably by subgroup. The birth rates for black and Hispanic teenage women are more than twice those for white teens.


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