37% of Births Out of Wedlock

by    Erin Roach                                                                                                                                            Vol. XX, No. 3, March 2007

Nearly four in 10 babies born in the United States in 2005 were born to unmarried mothers, an all-time high for out-of-wedlock births. On the positive side, officials at the National Center for Health Statistics reported that the birth rate among girls ages 10 to 17 dropped in 2005 to the lowest level on record. But births among unmarried mothers in their 20s rose dramatically, the center found.

“A lot of people think of teenagers and unmarried mothers synonymously, but they are not driving this,” Stephanie Ventura, a co-author of the report, told the Associated Press.

Experts attribute the rise to a trend – sparked by Hollywood – where having a child out of wedlock is more acceptable and less shameful than in the past. And as a recent report in The New York Times mentioned, more women are putting off marriage or choosing to cohabit with men who are not their husbands.

Census figures show that the average age for a man to marry was 27 in 2005 and the average age for women was 25, up from 23 and 20 in 1950.

The birth rate among teenagers declined to 2% in 2005, which is the lowest level in the 65 years for which a consistent series of rates is available, AP said.