The National Center for Health Statistics reported that 1999 statistics showed
a one-year drop of 3 percent from 1998 to 1999 in births to teenage girls
ages 15 to 19, and a 20 percent drop from 1991. The 1999 birth rate of 49.6
per 1,000 was the eighth consecutive year of declining rates. Black teens
showed the most significant decline: 38 percent from 1991 to 1999. The highest
teen birth rate was in 1957, with 96 births per 1,000. Government experts
attribute the change to a greater understanding of the importance of safer
sex and abstinence, as well as a stronger economy that encourages teens toward
more education and later parenthood.
National Center for Health Statistics, NVSS Births, Marriages, Divorces, and
Deaths: Provisional Data Jan.-Dec. 2000 www.cdc.gov/nchs
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