Teen Birth Rates Drop Across the Nation, Analysis Finds

WASHINGTON —  American teenagers are having fewer babies, including a dramatic decrease among black girls to the lowest rate on record, the government said Thursday.

The reasons for the drop, which occurred in every state: less sex and more birth control, statistics indicate.

Black teen birth rates fell by 21% from 1991 to 1996. In 1996, 9.2% of black teenage girls gave birth, the lowest level since the government began keeping that statistic.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said that the African American community’s “strategy of parents, community leaders, religious leaders and schools all sending the same consistent message that young blacks are cutting off their future if they have children is working.”

Latina teenagers now are most likely to give birth, though their rates also fell, from 10.7% in 1995 to 10.2% in 1996.

Despite the decreases, teen birth rates among both minority groups remain more than double that of white teenagers, whose rates have steadily declined since 1991. In 1995, 3.9% of non-Latina whites had babies.

Nearly half a million American teenagers give birth each year. In 1996, there was about one birth for every 20 girls ages 15 to 19, down 11.9% since 1991, said the analysis released by the National Center for Health Statistics.

In 1995, sexual activity among teenagers dropped for the first time since the government began tracking information in 1970. Contraceptive use has increased.