Teen Birthrates Level Off: CDC Report

Teen birth rates reached an all time low in 2012 with just 29.4 births per 1,000 adolescent girls, statistics released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say.

The CDC reports showed that in 2011 teen birthrate was 31.3 per 100 girl between the ages 15 and 19. It notes that the teen birth rate dropped drastically in girls among all ethnic backgrounds. Lead study author Brady Hamilton said that this has been the lowest birthrate since 1940. The number is less than half of what it was in 1991, the recent peak of teen births (61.8 births per 1,000 teen girls), he said, according to USA Today.

"This is a truly remarkable success on a pressing social issue that many once considered intractable," said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

He explained that the reason behind low birthrate is less sex and more contraception. "More kids are delaying sex, which is a good and responsible thing to do, and the kids who are having sex are using contraception more consistently and carefully, also a good and responsible thing to do."

The statistics found that teen birthrates among Hispanics was 46.3 births per 1,000  teens,  43.9 per 1,000 for black teens; 34.9 for American Indian or Alaska Native; 20.5 for whites; 9.7, for Asian or Pacific Islanders.

"The numbers show that people with less economic security have become more reluctant to have children now," Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, told Washington Post, referring to Hispanic birthrate decline. "Three years from now, who knows? You sort of expect it to return to what it was."