TUESDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- The teen birth rate in the United States declined 2 percent between 2007 and 2008, and more women are waiting until their 40s to have children, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
According to the report, the teen birth rate declined to 41.5 births per 1,000 teenagers aged 15 to 19 in 2008 from 42.5 births in 2007, after rising in both 2005 and 2006. In addition, birth rates in 2008 declined 3 percent for women ages 20 to 24, 2 percent among women ages 25 to 29, and 1 percent among women in their 30s.
The only age group that saw a birth rate increase was women in their 40s. The rate rose 4 percent for women ages 40 to 44 and rose slightly among women ages 45 to 49. For women ages 40 to 44, the birth rate is now 9.9 births per 1,000 women, the highest level since 1967, according to the statistics. The CDC also reported that there were 4,251,095 total births in 2008, down from the all-time high of 4,317,119 in 2007.
"The downturn in the economy is associated with the downturn in births," co-author, Brady E. Hamilton, Ph.D., of the CDC's Division of Vital Statistics, said in a statement.
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