Since the late 1950s, the birth rate of women aged 15 to 19 has decreased by about 41 percent overall. (One substantial increase started around the mid-1980s, then reversed itself in the early 1990s). The overall decrease in the teen birth rate parallels the overall decline in the U.S. birth rate as a whole, which has fallen 47 percent over the same time period. In contrast, the proportion of teen births outside of marriage has steadily increased over the same period (1957-95) from 14 percent to 78 percent of all teen births. (See fig. 1.) In 1995, the most recent year for which final data are available, the annual birth rate for women aged 15 through 19 was approximately 57 per thousand, compared with 96 per thousand in 1957 when the rate was at its peak. (See fig. 1.) There was a similar decline in the birth rate for all women over the same time period. The rate fell from 123 per thousand to 66 per thousand for women aged 15 through 44, a decline of 47 percent. While the overall trend in the teen birth rate has been downward, fluctuations have occurred. The most dramatic increase began in 1986 after the teen birth rate had reached 50 per thousand, the lowest point in 40 years. Between 1986 and 1991, the rate increased by 24 percent before starting to decline again. The percentage of births to unmarried teen women has increased substantially over the past several decades. In 1995, 78 percent of teen births were to unmarried women, compared with about 14 percent in 1957. This trend parallels a rise in births outside of marriage for the general population of women. Births to unmarried women of all ages had risen to 32 percent of the total in 1995 from about 5 percent in 1957. Teen birth rates in 1995 varied considerably by race, age, and geography. Rates for black and Hispanic teens were more than double those of white teens, and older teens constituted nearly two-thirds of teens who gave birth in 1995. Higher rates of teen births were found in the southern and southwestern states. In 1995, birth rates for Hispanic and black teens were 107 and 99 per thousand, respectively—more than twice the rate for white teens at 39 per thousand. Black and Hispanic women were also more likely to begin their families at younger ages. Compared with white teens, they were twice as likely to give birth by age 20. In 1995, the birth rates for teen women aged 18 to 19 were more than double the rates for those aged 15 to 17, regardless of race. (See table 1.) A similar pattern is evident among unmarried teens, where older teens had birth rates about double those of younger teenage women. In 1995, teen birth rates were the lowest in the northern states and highest in the South and the Southwest. (See fig. 2.) The states with the lowest rates had 45 or fewer births per thousand teen women while the states with the highest rates had 66 or more births per thousand. The 12 highest rates, which are concentrated in the southern and southwestern states, are 1.5 times the lowest rates in the northern states. A recent analysis of these patterns shows that teen birth-rate variations by geographic area correspond to the racial and ethnic distributions in the United States—higher numbers of blacks and Hispanics live in southern and southwestern states. A comparison of 1990 urban and rural teen birth rates for eight southeastern states shows that rural teen birth rates were higher than urban rates in three of four race and age categories. Among white women aged 15 to 17 and 18 to 19 and black women aged 18 to 19, those who lived in rural areas had higher birth rates than those who lived in urban areas. Only black women aged 15 through 17 had higher rates in urban areas. The study links the higher rural birth rates to a relatively lower use of abortion in rural areas. This profile provides descriptive characteristics of teen mothers who gave birth in the 1990s. Of teens who gave birth in 1995, almost half were white and most were age 18 or 19 and unmarried. About two-thirds of teen births were the result of an unintended pregnancy, and many births (21 percent) were a second or later child. About two-thirds of teen mothers graduated from high school; however, teen mothers graduated at substantially lower rates than teen women without children. (See table 2.) Furthermore, teen mothers reported drug use in the past month that was similar to that of other women their age. Also, 28 percent of white teen mothers reported smoking tobacco during their pregnancy, compared with 5 percent of black and Hispanic mothers. Almost half of the 512,000 births in 1995 (233,000) were to white teen mothers. The remainder included an almost even distribution of births between blacks (137,000) and Hispanics (122,000). (See fig. 3.) Births to teen mothers were predominantly to older teens. In 1995, about 60 percent of all children born to teens—married and unmarried—were born to 18-and 19-year-olds. Of the remaining 40 percent born to younger teenage women, most were born to women aged 15 to 17, with just slightly more than 12,000 born to women under age 15. (See table 2 and fig. 4.) About three-fourths of all teenage women who gave birth were unmarried at the time of the birth. Black teen mothers were predominantly unmarried (95 percent), while 68 percent of white and 68 percent of Hispanic teen mothers were unmarried at the time of the birth. In 1995, more than one-fifth of all teen births in the United States were to teenage women who had already given birth to at least one child. (See table 2.) The highest proportions of second or later births were among 18- and 19-year-olds. In this age group, 36 percent of black teen births, 30 percent of Hispanic teen births, and 21 percent of white teen births were a second or later child. The chance of the birth being a second or later birth was similar for all teens, regardless of race, age, or marital status. (See table 3.) A high percentage of births to teens in the United States result from unintended pregnancies. Between 1990 and 1995, 65 percent of births to teenage mothers were reported as unintended, whereas about one-third of all U.S. births were reported as unintended in that period. From 1990 to 1995, about 75 percent of births to black teen mothers, 67 percent to white teen mothers, and 46 percent to Hispanic teen mothers were reported as unintended. (See table 2 and fig. 5.) Generally, women who give birth in their teens have substantially lower high school graduation rates than those who do not. A recent education study shows that about 64 percent of teen mothers graduated from high school or earned a general equivalency diploma within 2 years after the time they would have graduated, compared with about 94 percent of teenage women who did not give birth. An older study similarly found that less than 60 percent of teen mothers graduated from high school by age 25, compared with 90 percent of women who did not have a child in their teens. Also, high school completion rates among teen mothers vary considerably by race. Black teen mothers—in both a 1990s study and a 1970s study—had the highest high school completion rates compared with whites and Hispanics. Research shows that a large percentage of teenage mothers eventually become welfare recipients. Data from a 1990 Congressional Budget Office report show that almost half of all teen mothers and three-quarters of unmarried teen mothers received AFDC within 5 years of giving birth. By contrast, only about one-quarter of married teen mothers received AFDC during the same time period. In our 1994 report, we similarly found that women who gave birth as teenagers made up nearly half of the unmarried AFDC caseload. Also, survey data from 1995 show that 69 percent of births to teens in a 5-year period were paid for by Medicaid or other government sources. Substance use among teen mothers is comparable to that for other women their age. In a national survey, about one-sixth of teen mothers aged 15 to 19 reported any illicit drug use in the past month, while about one-third reported alcohol and one-third cigarette use during that time. Similar percentages of women without children in those age groups reported using those substances in the past month. Smoking during the pregnancy, by contrast, appears lower for teens than for their peers with children. Compared with the one-third of teen mothers aged 15 to 17 who smoke, about 17 percent of mothers that age who gave birth in 1995 reported smoking while they were pregnant. However, smoking cigarettes during pregnancy varied by race or ethnicity; about 28 percent of white teen mothers reported smoking during pregnancy, compared with about 5 percent of black or Hispanic teenage mothers. Certain social factors, such as the teen’s level of school involvement or family background and income, appear to influence the likelihood that a woman will give birth in her teenage years. Generally, lower school involvement, unstable family structure, and declining family income are associated with an increased likelihood of teen births. According to one study, teens who experienced multiple risk factors such as early school failure, poverty, or family dysfunction were more likely to become teenage mothers. Beyond a few factors, which had similar effects across the groups studied, the impact of other social factors on the likelihood of teen births varied by racial or ethnic group. Family instability, such as divorce and remarriage; declining family income, such as with job loss; and lower standardized test scores were associated with an increased likelihood of a teen birth, while family stability, increasing family income, and higher standardized test scores were associated with a reduced likelihood of birth for each group studied. Staying in school and living in two-parent families were associated with a lower risk of birth for white and Hispanic teens but had no effect for black teens. Socioeconomic status (SES) also had a mixed effect across racial groups.