• 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
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 2002 statistics showed that about 20 percent of all new mothers under 20 were unmarried but living with the father at the time of the birth.
  • The 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.
• 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.
• 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 the 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.

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