Teen Moms: Just a Small Part of Single Mothers

Rachel Sheffield / April 08, 2011

On Tuesday, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that U.S. teen birth rates dropped to their lowest rate in decades. According to the report, the number of teenage births has declined by nearly 40 percent in the last 20 years.

Of course, this is good news, especially considering the myriad negative implications for children born to teen moms, such as lower school achievement and an increased risk of becoming teen parents themselves.

But there’s a flipside to this positive news. Despite the dip in teen births, over the last five decades, the number of unwed mothers in the U.S. has actually soared. Whereas in the 1960s fewer than 10 percent of all babies were born outside of marriage, today that number is over 40 percent. And for some groups it has already reached 50 percent or far surpassed it. For example, nearly half of Hispanic children and nearly three-fourths of African-American children are born to single mothers annually. (more…)