(mercurynews.com) The good news: The teen birth rate is at an all-time low.
The bad news: The out-of-wedlock birth rate is at an all-time high.
Children born out of wedlock are at much higher risk to grow up in poverty, drop out of school, get in trouble with the law and become teen parents themselves. That’s why it’s in the nation’s interest to encourage stable parenting relationships.
According to a newly released government report, more U.S. women are waiting to have children till their 20s — but not waiting till they’re married.
The teen birth rate, though still higher than in other affluent countries, has declined by 35 percent since 1991; for black teens, births fell by 59 percent.
There’s no European-style birth dearth in sight: Birth rates rose slightly for women in their early 20s and for women in their 30s and 40s.
On the bad news side, 37 percent of babies born in 2005 were born to unmarried women, concludes the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics. The rate is inching up steadily.
One explanation is that Americans are postponing marriage: The median age at first marriage was 27 for men and 25 for women last year, up from 23 and 20 in 1950.
In some cases, parents live together for several years, then decide to make it legal. But it’s all too common for unwed fathers to drift away, leaving a single mother struggling to make a living while raising a child. (more…)
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