THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050388
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. LENGTH: 73 lines
The national birth rate for unmarried women fell for the first time in nearly two decades last year and the teen-age birth rate posted a fourth consecutive annual decline, the government reported Friday.
The 4 percent drop in the out-of-wedlock birth rate represents a marked shift in a figure that has proven stubbornly resistant to improvement and that has come to exemplify the wider breakdown of the traditional family structure.
Researchers attributed the declining teen birth rate to a leveling off of previous increases in sexual activity among young people and an increasing use of condoms motivated by a fear of AIDS.
The reduction in the overall rate of births among unmarried women is linked to the favorable trend among teen-agers, they said. But it reflects other factors, including a change in data collection procedures in California, that make it somewhat more difficult to interpret.
In Virginia, the rate of births to unmarried mothers stayed the same from 1994 to 1995, at 29.2 percent of all births. That rate is slightly less than the nation's 32 percent rate.
The most dramatic reduction nationwide was among black teens, whose birth rate fell 9 percent last year to 95.5 births per 1,000 from 104.5 in 1994. That rate has fallen 17 percent since 1991.
The Clinton administration, which released the figures compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics, hailed the developments as evidence that young Americans are beginning to take parental responsibilities more seriously.
``There are still far too many children being born outside of marriage, but we are now finally seeing that it is possible for us to move in the right direction,'' President Clinton said Friday in his radio address, which was released a day early to coincide with announcement of the data.
The birth rate for unmarried women aged 15 to 44 decreased 4 percent in 1995 to 44.9 births per 1,000 women from 46.9 the previous year, according to the government's preliminary data.
Similarly, births among unmarried mothers accounted for 32 percent of all births last year, down from 32.6 percent in 1994.
The teen birth rate continued on a gradual downward path, falling 3 percent to 56.9 births per 1,000 girls 15 to 19 from 58.9 in 1994, the government reported.
Researchers cautioned that it is too early to know if the decline in the overall rate will continue, but they expressed optimism.
The United States still has the highest teen birth rate of any industrial nation. The next highest country, Great Britain, has 32 births per 1,000 teen-age girls.
Because the figures were released much more quickly than in the past, analysts do not yet have access to supplementary information that might explain the declines.
Even so, the demographers who produced the report and independent researchers said they do not believe that abortion is a significant factor, noting that recent studies have shown a decrease in abortions since the early 1990s.
They suggested that the declines are more likely attributable to previously documented increases in use of condoms among teen-agers, based in part on a growing understanding of the danger of AIDS.
Part of the decline in the overall birth rate among unmarried women is linked to a change in the method used by the state of California to record birth data.
Unlike most other states, California does not ask new mothers if they are married when they are issued birth certificates and federal officials believe that the state has consistently over-reported the number of children born to single Hispanic women. Last year, the state adopted a new procedure designed to determine more accurately the marital status of such women, which could have caused the decline in the unmarried birth rate to appear larger than it actually was.
MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Los Angeles Times and
The Washington Post, and staff writer Elizabeth Simpson.
KEYWORDS: BIRTH RATE UNMARRIED WOMEN by CNB