Posted on 11/21/2006 1:23:56 PM PST by BenLurkin
ATLANTA - Out-of-wedlock births in the United States have climbed to an all-time high, accounting for nearly four in 10 babies born last year, government health officials said Tuesday.
While out-of-wedlock births have long been associated with teen mothers, the teen birth rate actually dropped last year to the lowest level on record. Instead, births among unwed mothers rose most dramatically among women in their 20s.
The overall rise reflects the burgeoning number of people who are putting off marriage or living together without getting married.
The increase in births to unwed mothers was seen in all racial groups, but rose most sharply among Hispanics. It was up among all age groups except youngsters ages 10 to 17.
"A lot of people think of teenagers and unmarried mothers synonymously, but they are not driving this," said Stephanie Ventura of the National Center for Health Statistics, a co-author of the report.
The government also reported that the rate of births by Caesarean delivery continued to climb in 2005 to a record high, despite efforts by public health authorities to bring down the number.
Many experts believe a large number of C-sections are medically unnecessary and done only for the convenience of the mother or her doctor.
The government report includes information from 99 percent of U.S. birth certificates filed last year. The information for 2005 is considered preliminary, but officials said it is not expected to change much.
About 4.1 million babies were born in the United States last year, up slightly from 2004. More than 1.5 million of those were to unmarried women; that is about 37 percent of the total. In 2004, about 36 percent of births were out of wedlock.
Out-of-wedlock births have been rising since the late 1990s.
But just because a mother is not married does not mean the father isn't around, Ventura noted. She noted 2002 statistics that showed that about 20 percent of all new mothers under 20 were unmarried but living with the father at the time of the birth. That same was true of about 13 percent of all new mothers ages 20 to 24.
According to census figures, the median age at first marriage was 27 for men and 25 for women last year, up from 23 and 20 in 1950. Meanwhile, the number of unmarried-couple households with children has been climbing, hitting more than 1.7 million last year, up from under 200,000 in 1970.
Other findings in the report:
The birth rate among teenagers declined 2 percent in 2005, continuing a trend from the early 1990s. The rate is now about 40 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19. That is the lowest level in the 65 years for which a consistent series of rates is available.
The U.S. teen birth rate is still the highest among industrialized countries.
Births to women in their early 20s rose slightly, to 102 births per 1,000 women ages 20 to 24. Births to women in their late 20s — the most productive group in terms of childbirth — was about that same from the previous year, at about 116 per 1,000 women ages 25 to 29.
The C-section rate rose to 30.2 percent of all births in 2005, an increase of 1 percentage point from the previous year. The rate has risen by nearly half since 1996.
"It is clear that the procedure is being overused," Tonya Jamois, president of the International Cesarean Awareness Network, said in a statement. ICAN is a California-based nonprofit organization focused on lowering C-section rates.
he full report has very detailed racial/ethnic breakdowns, and also by state by ethnicity. Black illegitimacy is around 70%, especially in the states with big cities. In states with few blacks, the black rate may be as low as 40%, especially in states where most of the blacks are military (North Dakota, Alaska, Montana, etc). The census also breaks down by type of "hispanic" (cubans much lower than Puerto Ricans), and "Asians" (Chinese and Japanese the lowet rates). Also by age by ethnicity, etc
Oh,I agree.I am glad I grew up in a two parent family.I just had a diferent conception of what"love"meant than they did.
I think marriage just is not for some people.I have always treasured my personal privacy and being able to run my own life-be the director of my own movie.
Not to sound sexist,but I cringe nowadays when I hear women open their mouths.Thats black women,white women,Asian women and any other woman under God's blue sky.
To be fair,if I WERE a woman,I sure wouldn't care much for the quality of men out there either!
Not to sound sexist,but I cringe nowadays when I hear women open their mouths.Thats black women,white women,Asian women and any other woman under God's blue sky.
To be fair,if I WERE a woman,I sure wouldn't care much for the quality of men out there either!
_________________________
If you don't want to sound sexist - maybe comments like that should just go through your head, not actually be vocalized (or typed).
Sorry.I let my Id escape from confinement once in a while!
Generation "Bastard"?
Gen B?
Witness Katrina.
You hit it right on the head. The "Sex and the City" life of being independently wealthy, sipping martinis all day in one of the most expensive cities in the world while talking about men and "relationships." I find it funny that we sometimes long for things that are virtually impossible to have. The grass is always greener I suppose....
Actual people have those lives. It's just that you can't transfer the trappings of those lives to other locales. New York doesn't travel well.
Ahh, a voice of reason and decency, at last!
You know Ben, as an Adoptee, I used to hear the term Bastard alot from various Morons, including the first time, when I was about 5 or 6, from an old Broad at church.
I've known since I could talk that I was adopted. I made some mention about "my other Mom", to which this dirty old hag replied "She was nothing but a Whore, who wasn't good for anything except making Bastards"
Well, you can imagine the shock my parents felt when I came home from church, and innocently asked "What's a Bastard?" then, of course followed by "What's a Whore?"
Years later, I got a unique opportunity. My Mom invited me to a church dinner, and guess who got seated at our table.
This old shrew went off on a rant about the evils of abortion, the poor innocent babies, and the terrible damage to the young women who have abortions.
My Mom knew what was coming as I calmly looked at this self righteous old hag, and in a very Dickensian fashion, asked her "Aren't those poor babies just Bastards, and aren't those young women nothing but Whores"?
I hate to say it, but I did get some level of amusement watching her, after all those years, attempting to keep her yellowed dentures from falling out of her mouth. I then reminded her of a day at church I never forgot.
Bastard: an unpleasant or despicable person. This thread is full of them.
:(
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelimbirths05/prelimbirths05.htm
The "final" 2004 figures also came out recently, which are sliced and diced in just about any way you could want:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf
The overall site, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs, has just about everything you could ever want to know about births, deaths, marriages, divorces and every other kind of vital statistic.
This problem is wrecking our society.
Your individual situations are not the issue.
Your personal animus hostility is uncalled for.
You don't know if it's wrecking society. We only know that it's changing society.
http://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p23-197.pdf
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n13_v48/ai_18459812
http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb05.htm
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_4_hispanic_family_values.html
I'm curious about the obtuseness that I'm seeing. Your refusal to admit that it is the parents that are the issue not the children make me believe that you don't mind being a pompous self-righteous jackass.
It is NOT the children that are the problem. It's the parents that make poor choices and don't right those choices that are the problem.
Blaming the "bastard children" is immoral and shameful on your part.
And you've assumed that because someone else was offended she's a single mom as well. I am the single mom. And I will continue to take you to task as your profile page indicates some sort of religous belief. If it's anything more than words only, you cannot possibly continue to think it's the children that are the problem. The Bible is quite clear about people who treat children poorly. I believe that is to be taken in word and deed just as other examples are given in the New Testament.
You are correct.....I'm reading Dr. Laura's book "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands." It should be required reading for women AND men. Oh...and...love is NOT a feeling. It's a choice.
Oh I love that book too. I'm not even married, but it made such sense and it'll help me become a better wife.
70 percent of blacks
45 percent of latinos
born out of wedlock
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.