Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States

The proportion of births to unmarried mothers in the United States has risen steeply over the past few decades, consistent with patterns in other countries. In March, CDC reported that about 4 in 10 births in the United States in 2007 were to unmarried mothers. While a great deal of focus has been placed on births to unmarried teens, 6 out of 10 births to women between the ages of 20 and 24 were among unmarried women in 2007. Between 1980 and 2007, the proportion of births to unmarried women in the United States has more than doubled, from 18 percent to 40 percent. National Center for Health Statistics, PDF