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Teen Pregnancy Rate by Race/Ethnicity Comparison, 1969

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50 State Comparison Story

Between 1991 and 2014, the teen birth rate declined by an impressive 61% nationwide. It has declined in all 50 states and among all racial/ethnic groups. However, progress has been uneven.

These 50-state comparisons allow you to directly compare how states are faring on a number of measures for teens and women overall. These measures include teen birth and pregnancy rates (both current levels and trends), percent of teens having sex and using contraception, and prevalence of unplanned pregnancies among all women.

All of the statistics provided for comparison are rates or percentages, which means they are standardized for population size, and are appropriate for state-level comparisons. For all comparisons, the states faring the best are ranked the lowest (1st), and the states faring the worst are ranked the highest (50th). 

Because some statistics are indicators of increased risk (e.g. the teen pregnancy rate) and others are indicators of reduced risk (e.g. used contraception at last sex), the state with the highest ranking may not necessarily have the highest value.  For more information about the data and key terms, please see our Terms and FAQs. For citations, please see our Sources section.

Fact Sheets

Fact Sheets
Fast Facts: Teen Pregnancy in the United States
April 2016
Our Fast Facts fact sheet series details data on teen pregnancy, birth, and childbearing including information on: race and ethnicity, sexual behavior, contraceptive use, and trends in the United States.
Counting It Up: Total Costs to Taxpayers
Fact Sheets
Counting It Up: Total Costs to Taxpayers
May 2014
This table provides the total public cost of teen childbearing for each state.
Counting It Up: Key Data (2013)
Fact Sheets
Counting It Up: Key Data (2013)
December 2013
This fact sheet summarizes the national costs of teen childbearing that were produced through the Counting It Up project.

Sources

Teen Births

Hamilton, B.E.,  Martin, J.A.,  Osterman, M.J.K.,  Curtin, S.C., & Mathews, T.J. (2015).  Births:  Final Data for 2014.  National Vital Statistics Reports, 64(12), 1-64.  Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_12.pdf.

Martin, J.A., Hamilton, B.E., Osterman, M.J.K., Curtin, S.C., & Matthews, T.J. (2015). Births: Final Data for 2013. National Vital Statistics Reports, 64(1), 1-64.   Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_01.pdf.

Romero, L., Pazol, K., Warner, L., Cox, S., Kroelinger, C., Besera, G., Brittain, A., Fuller, T.R., Koumans, E., & Barfield, W. (2016).  Reduced Disparities in Birth Rates Among Teens Aged 15–19 Years — United States, 2006–2007 and 2013–2014.  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 65(16), 409-414. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6516a1.htm.

Ventura, S.J., Hamilton, B.E., & Matthews, T.J. (2014). National and State Patterns of Teen Births in the United States, 1940–2013. National Vital Statistics Reports, 63(4), 1-34. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_04.pdf.

Teen Pregnancy

Kost, K., & Maddow-Zimet, I. (2016).  U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2011:  National Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity.   New York: Guttmacher Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.guttmacher.org/report/us-teen-pregnancy-trends-2011.

Kost, K., & Maddow-Zimet, I. (2016).  U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions, 2011:  State Trends by Age, Race and Ethnicity.  New York:  Guttmacher Institute.  Retrieved from: https://www.guttmacher.org/report/us-teen-pregnancy-state-trends-2011.

Henshaw, S.K. (1993). Teenage Abortion, Birth, And Pregnancy Statistics by State, 1988.  Family Planning Perspectives, 25(3), 122-126.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2136160.

Sex & Contraception

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2016). 1991-2015 High School Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System Data.  Youth Online [Interactive Data Tables]. Available at http://nccd.cdc.gov/youthonline.

Terms & FAQs

* While all other measures refer to teens age 15-19, the proportion of teen births and pregnancies by age are measured for all women younger than 20.  When data on births and pregnancies to girls under 15  are not available,  this proportion is measured only among 15-19 year olds.   These proportions may not add to 100%, due to rounding.   Proportions which are less than 0.5% are rounded down to 0%.

ᵻ Births for which birth order is unknown are not included.

* Estimates of public expenditures for unplanned pregnancy are produced by the Guttmacher Institute.   These estimates are not comparable to previous years since the methodology was revised in 2010.  Most notably, estimates for 2010 include 60 months of care for a child, whereas in 2006 and 2008 their estimates included 12 months of care for a child.

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¨Teen birth rates for 2014 by race/ethnicity and state reflect data from 2013-2014,  as calculated by the National Center for Health Stastics.   Declines in the teen birth rate by state and race/ethnicity are also calculated using 2013-2014 data.

§ The national decline in the teen pregnancy rate by race/ethnicity is measured since 1991 rather than 1990 (the peak year) because rates by race/ethnicity are no longer uniformly available for 1990.   Also, while the current teen pregnancy rate reflects non-Hispanic black teens, the decline in the teen pregnancy rate is calculated among black teens overall due to data availability; this raises little concern given that rates for black teens overall and for non-Hispanic black teens are nearly identical.

‡ State-level teen pregnancy rates were not uniformly available in 1990, the peak year of the national rate. The decline by state is measured since 1988 for teen girls overall, and by age group.   The decline by state by race/ethnicity is measured since 1992 due to data availability. Declines over time for teens overall reflect published revisions made to historical teen pregnancy rates.  Such revisions were not published for historical teen pregnancy rates by age or by race/ethnicity, so declines for these groups are based on historical data published earlier by the Guttmacher Institute.  This inconsistency raises little concern given that, for teens overall, the original and revised teen pregnancy rates are nearly identical.  Even so, the declines by age and by race/ethnicity presented here should be considered an approximation.

Teen Birth Rate: The number of births per 1,000 teen girls, age 15-19.

Teen Pregnancy Rate: The number of pregnancies per 1,000 teen girls, age 15-19. Pregnancies include births, abortions, and miscarriages.

Birth Order/ Subsequent Births/Parity:   These statistics measure whether a birth is the mother’s 1st birth or a subsequent birth (that is, a woman’s 2nd birth, 3rd birth, or higher order birth).   This excludes births for which birth order was unknown.   

Sexually Active: A teen who has had sex within the last three months.

Four or more sexual partners: Proportion of high school students with four or more lifetime partners.

IUD:  Intra-uterine device.    This is a long-term, low maintenance, highly effective contraceptive method that is inserted into the uterus.   This includes both the nonhormonal copper IUD (Paragard), and the plastic IUD, which includes hormones (Mirena and Skyla). 

Used Any Hormonal or Long Acting Method at Last Sex: Used birth control pills, or Depo-Provera (or any injectable birth control), NuvaRing (or any birth control ring), Implanon (or any implant), or any IUD.

Public Cost of Unplanned Pregnancies: This measures the public costs only for births resulting from unplanned pregnancies.

 

FAQs

1. What is the difference between birth data and pregnancy data?

A pregnancy can result in a live birth, an abortion, or a miscarriage.  Pregnancy data include all pregnancies (births, abortions and miscarriages), while birth data reflect only live births.   Also, while birth data are based on a near 100% accounting of every birth in the country, pregnancy data incorporate an estimate of miscarriages and abortion numbers that draw on various reporting systems and surveys.  Pregnancy data are generally released a year or two after birth data because it takes time to incorporate these different components.   The Guttmacher Institute and the National Center for Health Statistics wtihin the Centers for Disease Control both publish teen pregnancy rates.  Although their methodologies differ slightly, both rely on largely the same underlying data sources, and their results are very similar (for more detail, see: http://thenationalcampaign.org/resource/fast-facts-teen-pregnancy-united-states).

 

2. Where do you get your data?

Our data are compiled from a variety of published sources. Birth statistics are based on vital statistics data published by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Pregnancy statistics are based on published reports from NCHS and the Guttmacher Institute. Statistics on sexual activity and contraceptive use are based on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey published by the Division of Adolescent and School Health within the CDC. State policy data are routinely summarized from reports published by the Guttmacher Institute. To maximize consistency across states, we rely on these national sources rather than state or local sources. Please refer to Sources for more detailed information.

3. Do you have any more recent data?

We make every effort to continuously update our data portal whenever new data are released. The most recent year of data available will vary by indicator. In some cases, an indicator may be available for a more recent year in particular states or localities, however we update an indicator only once it’s been released by a national source for all states.

4. Why don’t you have more recent teen pregnancy data?

Unlike teen birth data, which are routinely released in the following year, there is generally a one to two year lag in the release of teen pregnancy data. Our teen pregnancy data come from publications released by NCHS and the Guttmacher Institute, which combines data from NCHS birth and population data along with the Guttmacher Institute survey of abortion providers to estimate the number and rate of teenage pregnancies. If you need a more recent indicator, consider using teen birth data instead.

5. But I heard that more recent teen pregnancy data were available.

It’s possible that this may have been a reference to teen birth data. Or it may be that, for a particular state or locality, more recent teen pregnancy data are available. We update our statistics only once new data are available for all states.

6. Can I get a copy of your dataset?

Our dataset can be directly downloaded from the website. You can access national- and state-level data, however, no data are available below state-level.

7. How can I open the dataset file?

The easiest way is to double-click the file and select Excel as the program.  Select "Open" or "Yes" as you continue through the prompts.  

Alternatively,  you can rename the file to add the file extension ". csv", and directly open it within excel.   (For example, "national-details" becomes "national-details.csv").

If you open the dataset from the File dropdown menu within Excel,  you will be directed to use the Text Import Wizard.   For Step 1, select "Delimited".  For Step 2,  uncheck "Tab" and check "Comma".  For Step 3, select "General", and then "Finish".

8. Do the data on sexual activity and contraception represent all teens?

No, these data only represent teens in high school—they do not reflect the experiences of teens who have graduated high school or who left high school for other reasons.

Data on contraceptive use are only measured among sexually active high school students.

9. What is meant by unplanned pregnancy?

An unplanned pregnancy is a pregnancy that the woman herself reports was not intended at the time of conception—either she reports that she did not want to get pregnant ever, or she reports that she got pregnant earlier than she had intended.

10. What does “per 1,000 Girls” mean?

“Per 1,000 girls” is a rate, and we often use rates because they provide a more appropriate comparison across different size populations.   For example, you might want to compare teen childbearing in California and North Dakota.   If you just examined the number of teen births, you would think that teen childbearing was more common in California than North Dakota – 38,606 births compared to 647 births in 2011.   However, the rate—because it accounts for the population size—shows us that teen childbearing was remarkably similar in both states – each had a rate of 26.5 births per 1,000 teen girls in 2012.  

It is common to confuse a rate per 1,000 with a percentage, but they are not the same.    A percentage is measured per 100, while rates are commonly measured per 1,000.   To get a sense of the difference, consider that a teen birth rate of 26.5 births per 1,000 teen girls equates to a percentage of 2.65% teen girls having a birth each year.  The relative frequency of teen births each year is typically expressed as a rate, not a percentage.  

11. What does "N/A" mean?

N/A refers to data that are not available for a variety of reasons:

  •    Rates are not calculated when either the numerator or the denominator is not large enough to produce a stable rate.   
  •    Pregnancy rates by race/ethnicity are not available for states where abortion data is not collected by race/ethnicity. 
  •    Changes in a rate over time are calculated only if rates are available for both years.
  •    Some states do not participate in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), the source for all of the statistics in the "Sex and Contraception" section.
  •    ​Changes in the teen birth rate are marked as N/A when they are not statistically significant,  while all available changes in the teen pregnancy rate are shown.

We follow the guidelines provided in the methodology of each data source.   For more information, please refer to the Sources section.
 

12. Where can I find additional data?

The Centers for Disease Control, from which we gather many of the statistics presented here, also has available several interactive table generators that are easy to use.  You can use these tools to find more detailed statistics, focus on a smaller geographic area, or find data for a more narrowly defined demographic group.  Below are a few examples:

Please visit our Sources section for further information.