Teen Birth Rate Falls To Record Low In CDC Report

The birth rate among teens aged 15-19 in the United States dropped in 2009 to the lowest level recorded in seven decades of tracking teenage childbearing. The news comes in a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that says there were 39.1 births per 1,000 teens in 2009, a six percent drop from the 2008 rate of 41.5 births per 1,000.

A press release accompanying the report says that U.S. fertility rates dropped across the board:

The general fertility rate fell from 68.6 births per 1,000 females aged 15-44 per year in 2008 to 66.7 in 2009. The total number of births declined from 4,247,694 in 2008 to 4,131,019 in 2009. This decline appears to be continuing into 2010, based on early birth counts from January-June of this year.

The full report is available as a PDF document on the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics website.