Teen girls in the U.S. are giving birth at record lows, continuing a more than two-decade trend of falling birthrates among 15- to 19-year-olds.
The 2014 teen birthrate was 2.4 percent, down 9 percent from the year before, according to a report the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday. The rate has fallen 61 percent since 1991, which the CDC identifies as the first year of a long-term decline in teens giving birth.
Although fewer teens are giving birth than in past years across all 50 states, there is still a significant state-by-state difference in the percentage of teens having babies. Massachusetts had the nation's lowest teen birthrate, at a little more than 1 percent, and Alabama had the highest, with nearly 4 percent.
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Colorado saw the most drastic declines in the percentage of teen girls having babies. Colorado took proactive measures in 2009 to curb teen pregnancies, including a program that provides no-cost long-acting reversible contraception, such as intrauterine devices, to teens and young women. The state's teen birthrate has dropped 40 percent since the program started.
Along racial and national origin lines, American Indian and non-Hispanic black teens had the greatest decline in teen births since last year. Teens classified as Asian/Pacific Islander had the lowest overall birthrates last year, at 0.8 percent. Teens classified as Hispanic had last year's highest rate, at 3.8 percent.
Despite more than two decades of declining birthrates, the U.S. still has a higher rate of teen parents than any other industrialized nation, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a public health nonprofit focusing on reproductive issues. Switzerland has the lowest.
The exact causes of the dipping teen birthrate are unclear. However, a combination of declining U.S. birthrates overall, teens using more reliable contraceptive options, teens having less sex and more effective sex education could be contributing factors, Vox reports.
One thing that is for sure: A high teen birth costs taxpayers at every level, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a Washington-based, nonpartisan nonprofit organization.
Teen childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers at least $9.4 billion in 2010. The costs are largely associated with "negative consequences" for the children of teen mothers, including more expensive health care, foster care and incarceration.
Also on HuffPost:
