--- title: Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low: CDC description: Last year there were fewer teenage pregnancies in the United States than ever before, according to a new government report. canonical: https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-03T13:23:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:08.205Z article:section: Health og:title: Teen Birth Rates in the U.S. Hit a Record Low og:description: The rate of births among 15-19 year olds declined by 9% in 2016 compared to 2015 og:url: https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte3f297f644bb8880/6988d458cf40a830b2c48662/us-teen-pregnancy-rate-decreased.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3614 og:image:height: 2033 og:image:alt: Female symbol made up of contraceptive pills og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Teen Birth Rates in the U.S. Hit a Record Low twitter:description: The rate of births among 15-19 year olds declined by 9% in 2016 compared to 2015 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte3f297f644bb8880/6988d458cf40a830b2c48662/us-teen-pregnancy-rate-decreased.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Teen Birth Rates in the U.S. Hit a Record Low > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Here Are the Most Popular Baby Names of 2016 [Watch (HLS stream): Here Are the Most Popular Baby Names of 2016](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uvZiIWIl.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2017-05-12. Noah and Emma were the most popular baby names in 2016 — the third year in a row that both names have held the top spot on the government's annual list, federal officials revealed Friday_ by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jul 3, 2017 1:23 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Jul 3, 2017 1:23 PM UTC Last year there were fewer [teenage births](http://time.com/4533391/japanese-baby-robots-artificial-intelligence/) in the United States than ever before, according to a [new government report](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/report002.pdf). The rate of births among 15-to-19 year olds declined by 9% in 2016 compared to 2015 — a record low for that age group, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control. The birth rate was 20.3 births per 1,000 woman in 2016, compared to 22.3 births per 1,000 women in 2015. The birth rate for women aged 20 to 24 also declined; in 2016, there were 4% fewer births among that age group, another record low. The total number of births in the U.S. declined by 1% overall. In 2016, there were 3,941,109 births in total, but in 2015 there were 3,978,497\. This is the second year that the number of births has declined following an increase in 2014, the government report explains. The report did not discuss the reasons behind the teenage birth rate drop, but Elise Berlan, M.D., of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, attributed the decline to better access to and use of contraceptives in an interview with the [New York](http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/teen-birth-rate-hits-record-article-1.3291449)[ _Daily News_](http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/teen-birth-rate-hits-record-article-1.3291449)_._ “We know that the vast majority of teen births are unintended,” she added. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/"},"headline":"Teen Birth Rates in the U.S. Hit a Record Low","datePublished":"2017-07-03T13:23:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:08.205Z","description":"The rate of births among 15-19 year olds declined by 9% in 2016 compared to 2015","url":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/","keywords":["Pregnancy","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte3f297f644bb8880/6988d458cf40a830b2c48662/us-teen-pregnancy-rate-decreased.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte3f297f644bb8880/6988d458cf40a830b2c48662/us-teen-pregnancy-rate-decreased.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Female symbol made up of contraceptive pills","caption":"Female symbol made up of contraceptive pills","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/pregnancy/","name":"Pregnancy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/","name":"Teen Birth Rates in the U.S. Hit a Record Low"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here Are the Most Popular Baby Names of 2016","description":"Noah and Emma were the most popular baby names in 2016 — the third year in a row that both names have held the top spot on the government's annual list, federal officials revealed Friday","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uvZiIWIl/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-12T14:44:21.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uvZiIWIl.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4843652/teen-birth-rates-record-low/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```