Percentage of Births to Unmarried Women
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Headline

The percentage of births to unmarried women has steadily increased in the past few decades, from 5.3 percent in 1960 to 36.8 percent in 2005. (See Figure 1) In 2004, the most recent year for which data are available by all ages, over a quarter of births to woman ages 25 to 29 (27.8 percent) and over half of births to woman ages 20 to 24 (54.8 percent) were to unmarried women.

Importance

Women who give birth outside of marriage tend to be more disadvantaged than their married counterparts, both before and after having a nonmarital birth. Unmarried mothers generally have lower incomes, lower education levels, and greater dependence on welfare assistance than do married mothers.¹ Economic disadvantage may even extend into old age, with women who are single mothers for a period of at least 10 years during their life at greater risk of being poor at ages 65 through 75.² In addition, women who have a nonmarital birth have reduced marriage prospects when compared with single women without children.^3,4,5

Children born to unmarried mothers are more likely to grow up in a single-parent household, experience instability in living arrangements, live in poverty, and have socioemotional problems.⁶ As these children reach adolescence, they are more likely to have low educational attainment, engage in sex at younger ages, and have a premarital birth.^7,8 As young adults, children born outside of marriage are more likely to be idle (neither in school nor employed), have lower occupational status and income, and have more troubled marriages and divorces than those born to married parents.⁹

Trends

The percentage of births to unmarried women has increased dramatically in recent decades, from 5.3 percent in 1960 to 32.2 percent in 1995. This percentage was relatively stable for several years in the mid-1990s, but has risen slightly each year since 1997, reaching 36.8 percent in 2005 (preliminary estimate).(See Figure 1)

Data for 2004, the most recent year for which data by all ages are available, also indicate an increase in the proportion of births that occur to unmarried women among all age groups, including women older than 20.

The long-term trend toward nonmarital births may be attributed, in part, to an increase in cohabiting unions and births within such relationships. By the mid-1990s, approximately 40 percent of nonmarital births occurred to women in cohabiting unions, compared with 29 percent in the early 1980s. ¹⁰ More recent estimates indicate that 49 percent of unmarried mothers in large urban areas were cohabiting at the time of the birth of a child.¹¹

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Differences by Race and Hispanic Origin

Large racial/ethnic differences exist in the percentage of births to unmarried women, with non-Hispanic white women and Asian or Pacific Islander women being much less likely to have a nonmarital birth. In 2005, 69.5 percent of all births to non-Hispanic black women, 63.3 percent of births of American Indian or Alaskan native woman, and 47.9 percent of births to Hispanic women occurred outside of marriage, compared with 25.4 percent for non-Hispanic white women and 16.2 percent for Asian or Pacific Islander women (preliminary estimates). (See Figure 1)

Differences by Age

Younger women who have a birth are substantially more likely than older women to have that birth outside of marriage. In 2004, the most recent year for which data by all ages are available, the overwhelming majority of teenage births were to unmarried young women (97.4 percent for teens under age 15 and 82.4 percent for 15- to 19-year olds), compared with slightly over half of births to women ages 20 to 24 (54.8 percent), over one-quarter of births to women ages 25 to 29 (27.8 percent), and 15 to 16 percent of births to women in their thirties. (See Figure 2)

Related Indicators

Family Structure

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State and Local Estimates

2004 state estimates for the percentage of births to unmarried women are available from Births: Final Data for 2004 report at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf, See Table 20.

Estimates for the number of births to unmarried women under age 20 are available for states and select U.S. cities from Child Trends' Facts at a Glance, 2006 report http://www.childtrends.org/Files/FAAG2006revised.pdf

2003 estimates for the percentage of births to unmarried women for the 50 largest cities in the U.S. are available from The Right Start for America's Newborns at http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/sld/rightstart.jsp

2003 state estimates for the percentage of births to unmarried women are available at http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/sld/compare_results.jsp?i=30

International Estimates

International estimates for the number and percentage of births to unmarried women from 1990-1998 are available from the UN Statistics Division at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/dyb/dybnat.htm (See Table 13)

Estimates for the percentage of births to unmarried women in select countries is available from "Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940-1999, " see Figure 26. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_16.pdf

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National Goals

Reducing the number of out-of-wedlock births is one of the goals of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PROWA). Although specific targets have not been set, annual bonuses have been awarded to states that reduce the percentage of births to unmarried women by the largest amount (without increasing abortions).

More information is available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/aspesum.htm under the TANF Block Grant section and the Miscellaneous section.

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

Click here to view examples of programs and interventions that research has evaluated for this indicator. View programs

Research References

¹ Driscoll, A. K., Hearn, G. K., Evans, V. J., Moore, K. A., Sugland, B. W., & Call, V. (1999). Nonmarital childbearing among adult women. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 61, 178-187; Moore, K. A. (1995). Executive summary: Report to Congress on out-of-wedlock childbearing. (Full report available from DHHS Publication No. 95-1257-1). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Also available on the Internet at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/wedlock.pdf;
Terry-Humen, E., Manlove, J., & Moore, K. A. (2001). Births outside of marriage: Perceptions vs. reality. In Child Trends Research Brief. Washington, DC: Child Trends. http://www.childtrends.org/Files/rb_032601.pdf
Lichter, D., Graefe, D., & Brown, J. 2003. Is marriage a panacea? Union formation among economically disadvantaged unwed mothers. Social Problems, 50, 60-86.

²Johnson, R. & Favreault, M. 2004. "Economic status in later life among women who raised children outside of marriage." Washington, DC: The Urban Institute.

³Lichter, D & Graefe, D. 2001. "Finding a mate: The marital and cohabitation histories of unwed mothers." In L. Wu and B. Wolf, Out of wedlock: Causes and consequences of nonmarital fertility. New York, NY, US: Russell Sage Foundation: 317-343.

⁴Upchurch, D., Lillard, L., & Panis, C., "The impact of non-marital childbearing on subsequent marital formation and dissolution," In L. Wu and B. Wolf, Out of wedlock: Causes and consequences of nonmarital fertility. New York, NY, US: Russell Sage Foundation: 344-380.

⁵Bennett, N. G., Bloom, D. E., & Miller, C. K. (1995). The influence of nonmarital childbearing on the formation of first marriages. Demography, 32(1), 47-62.

⁶Aquilino, W. S. (1996). The life course of children born to unmarried mothers: Childhood living arrangements and young adult outcomes. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 58(2), 293-310.
Haveman, R., Wolfe, B., & Pence, K. (2001). Intergenerational effects of nonmarital and early childbearing. In L. L. Wu, & B. Wolfe (Eds.), Out of wedlock: causes and consequences of nonmarital fertility. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Demo, D., and Cox, M. (2000). Families with young children: A review of research in the 1990s. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 62 (4) 876-895.
McLanahan, S. and Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

⁷Aquilino, W. S. (1996). The life course of children born to unmarried mothers: Childhood living arrangements and young adult outcomes. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 58(2), 293-310.

⁸McLanahan, S. and Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

⁹Amato, Paul. (2005). "The Impact of Family Formation Change on the Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Well-Being of the Next Generation." The Future of Children, 15(2). http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/05_FOC_15-2_fall05_Amato.pdf

¹⁰Bumpass, L., & Lu, H. (2000). Trends in cohabitation and implications for children's family contexts in the United States. Population Studies, 29-41.

¹¹Sigle-Rushton, W., & McLanahan, S. (2002). The living arrangements of new unmarried mothers. Demography, 39(3), 415-433. Available on the Internet at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/demography/toc/dem39.3.html

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Definition

In 48 states, births to unmarried women are identified by a question such as "Mother married?" on the birth certificate. In the other two states, Michigan and New York, marital status is imputed. For more detailed information, please see the Technical Notes section of "Births: Final data for 2004" at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf

Data Source

Preliminary Data for 2005: Hamilton BE, Martin JA, and Ventura SJ. (2006). "Births: Preliminary data for 2005." National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 55. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Tables 1, 3. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hestats/prelimbirths05/prelimbirths05.htm

Data for 2004: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Sutton PD, et al. (2006). "Births: Final data for 2004." National Vital Statistics Reports, 55(1). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Table 18. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_01.pdf

Data for 2003: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Sutton PD, et al. (2005). "Births: Final data for 2003." National Vital Statistics Reports, 54(2). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Tables 13, 14, and 17. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_02.pdf

Data for 2002: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Sutton PD, Ventura SJ, Menacker F, Munson ML. "Births: Final data for 2002." National vital statistics reports; vol 52 no 10. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2003. Table 17. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_10.pdf

Data for 2001: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Ventura SJ, Menacker F, Park MM, Sutton PD. "Births: Final data for 2001." National vital statistics reports; vol 51 no. 2 Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2002. Table 17. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr51/nvsr51_02.pdf

Data for 2000: Martin JA, Hamilton BE, Ventura SJ, Menacker F, Park MM. "Births: Final data for 2000." National vital statistics reports; vol 50 no. 5 Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2002. Table 17. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr50/nvsr50_05.pdf

Data for 1999: Ventura SJ, Martin JA, Curtin SC, Menacker F, Hamilton BE. "Births: Final data for 1999." National vital statistics reports; vol 49 no. 1 Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2001. Table 17. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr49/nvsr49_01.pdf

Data for 1960-1998: Ventura SJ, Bachrach CA. "Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940-1999." National vital statistics reports; vol 48 no 16. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2000. Table 4. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr48/nvs48_16.pdf

Raw Data Source

Birth Data, National Vital Statistics System
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss.htm

Approximate Date of Next Update

Summer 2007

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