Over the last two decades, there has been a 40% drop in the teenage birth rate, according to a new report by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). However, with 400,000 teenage girls having babies each year, about 1,110 per day, the USA has a very long way to go to catch up with most of the other developed countries.

Despite the glamour portrayed by television, the internet and the music industry surrounding sex and having a baby when you are a teenager, it carries a high emotional, physical and financial cost to the baby, their mother and father, and the community.

Approximately 4% of all teenage girls have a baby each year, the authors reveal; an unacceptably high rate – that equates to 10% of the 4 million babies born in the country annually.

Teenage birth rates in the USA are very much higher than in the majority of other developed nations, in some cases up to nine times higher.

An African-American or Hispanic teen has double the risk of becoming pregnant compared to their Caucasian peers. The authors also reported that a much higher percentage of African-American teenage girls have had sex compared to Hispanic or white girls of the same age. The percentage of teenage African-American boys who have had sex is much higher than it is for whites or Hispanics.

A female baby whose mother is a teenager has a 33% higher risk of eventually becoming a teenage mother herself, what the CDC describes as “continuing the cycle of teen pregnancy.” 90% of teenage girls who do not get pregnant get a high school diploma by the time they are 22 years old, compared to 50% of those who have a baby.

Teenage births cost the American taxpayer approximately $9 billion annually.

The authors report that among high school children:

46% of teenagers (boys and girls) have had sexual intercourse. 20% less than 20 years ago.

Of teenagers who are sexually active, 12% did not use any form of birth control during their last sexual encounter. (16% in 1991)

Of teenagers who are sexually active, condoms, birth control pills, or Derpo-Provera were used by 9% of them to prevent pregnancy.

Approximately 53% of boys and 65% of girls received formal sex education about birth control and abstinence.

About 27% of boys and 44% of girls had talked with their parents about birth control and abstinence.

Live births per 1,000 women 15-19 years old, 2002

(Source: UNFPA, State of World Population 2003)

South Korea – 3

Japan – 4

China – 5

Switzerland – 5

Netherlands – 5

Spain – 6

Singapore – 6

Italy – 6

Sweden – 7

Denmark – 7

Slovenia – 8

Finland – 8

Luxembourg – 9

France – 9

Belgium – 9

Greece – 10

Cyprus – 10

Norway – 11

Germany – 11

Malta – 12

Austria – 12

Ireland – 15

Poland – 16

Canada – 16

Australia – 16

Albania – 16

Portugal – 17

Israel – 17

Czech Republic – 17

Iceland – 19

Croatia – 19

United Kingdom – 20

Hungary – 21

Bosnia and Herzegovina – 23

Slovakia – 24

Latvia – 24

Lithuania – 26

Estonia – 26

New Zealand – 27

Belarus – 27

Russia – 30

Georgia – 33

Macedonia – 34

Armenia – 34

Romania – 37

Ukraine – 38

Saudi Arabia – 38

Bulgaria – 41

Chile – 44

Brazil – 45

United States – 53

Written by Christian Nordqvist