The nation’s teen birth rate has been falling for years, but it reached a record low in 2015 according to new figures from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been tracking the figures annually since 1970.

The long-term decline has accelerated in recent years. From 2008 through 2015, the teen birth rate has fallen an average of 7 percent each year. “The continued, large decline in the teen birth rate was also somewhat surprising, although not unprecedented,” said the lead author on the report, Joyce A. Martin, a demographer and a statistician.

The Pew Research Center credits the recession of 2008 as a contributing factor. Indeed, the teen birth rate dropped a more dramatic 10 percent from 2009 to 2010. Another probable factor: MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” premiered in 2009, giving viewers an unvarnished view of the realities of teen pregnancy, according to a 2014 paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Other factors that may have influenced teen births including the rising use of contraception. For instance, the use of the morning-after pill by sexually active female teenagers had increased from 8 percent in 2002 to 22 percent in 2011, according to the CDC.

According to The National Campaign, America taxpayers saved $12 billion because of the nearly one-half decline in the teen birth rate between 1991 and 2010. Teen motherhood is associated with increased costs for foster care, higher incarceration rates, and lost tax revenue.