CDC: Birth Rate for 10- to-14-Year-Olds at Record Low in 2016
WEDNESDAY, April 25, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- From 2000 to 2016 there was a decrease in the birth rate for U.S. females aged 10 to 14 years, according to an April data brief published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
T.J. Mathews and Brady E. Hamilton, Ph.D., from the NCHS in Hyattsville, Md., describe recent trends and variations in births to young mothers aged 10 to 14 years by race, Hispanic origin, and state. Data were obtained from the National Vital Statistics System.
The researchers found that in 2015 and 2016, the birth rate for females aged 10 to 14 years reached a record low, at 0.2 births per 1,000 females, down from 0.9 in 2000. There was a decrease in the number of births to females aged 10 to 14 years, from 8,519 in 2000 to a record low of 2,253 in 2016. Birth rates declined for females aged 10 to 12, 13, and 14 years during 2000 to 2016. During the same time period, birth rates declined for females aged 10 to 14 years for all race and Hispanic-origin groups, with non-Hispanic black females having the largest decline. Delaware, Louisiana, and Mississippi had the highest birth rates for females aged 10 to 14 years for 2014 to 2016.
"The decline in birth rates for those aged 10 to 14 was greater from 2008 through 2016 than from 2000 through 2008, and these declines were broad-based," the authors write.
