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Why is the teen birth rate in the United States so high and why does it matter?

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Kearney, Melissa S, Levine, Phillip B·2012·Journal of Economic Perspectives
DOI 10.1257/jep.26.2.141
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Abstract

Why is the rate of teen childbearing is so unusually high in the United States as a whole, and in some U.S. states in particular? U.S. teens are two and a half times as likely to give birth as compared to teens in Canada, around four times as likely as teens in Germany or Norway, and almost ten times as likely as teens in Switzerland. A teenage girl in Mississippi is four times more likely to give birth than a teenage girl in New Hampshire—and 15 times more likely to give birth as a teen compared to a teenage girl in Switzerland. We examine teen birth rates alongside pregnancy, abortion, and “shotgun” marriage rates as well as the antecedent behaviors of sexual activity and contraceptive use. We demonstrate that variation in income inequality across U.S. states and developed countries can explain a sizable share of the geographic variation in teen childbearing. Our reading of the totality of evidence leads us to conclude that being on a low economic trajectory in life leads many teenage girls to have children while they are young and unmarried. Teen childbearing is explained by the low economic trajectory but is not an additional cause of later difficulties in life. Surprisingly, teen birth itself does not appear to have much direct economic consequence. Our view is that teen childbearing is so high in the United States because of underlying social and economic problems. It reflects a decision among a set of girls to “drop-out” of the economic mainstream; they choose nonmarital motherhood at a young age instead of investing in their own economic progress because they feel they have little chance of advancement.

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  • In the US, adolescent birth rates are higher and increasing compared with other developed countries.

    “In the US, these issues are compounded by the higher and increasing rates of adolescent births compared to other developed countries [48].”

    From Age-related disparities in national maternal mortality trends: A population-based study (2025) · cites this paper as [48]

    The Introduction says U.S. teens are far more likely to give birth than teens in other industrialized countries, supporting the comparison. But it also reports an almost 40 percent fall in the U.S. teen birth rate over the preceding two decades, contrary to the claim that the rate was increasing. (LLM, conf=0.94)

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Research works printed but not linked: 17

  1. [1]1. Akerlof, George A., Janet L. Yellen, and Michael L Katz. 1996. "An Analysis of Out-of- Wedlock Childbearing in the United States." Quarterly Journal of Economics 111(2): 277-317.
  2. [2]2. An, Chong-Bum, Robert Haveman, and Barbara Wolfe. 1993. "Teen Out-of-Wedlock Births and Welfare Receipt: The Role of Childhood Events and Economic Circumstances." Review of Economics and Statistics 75(2): 195-208.
  3. [4]4. Becker, Gary S., and H. Gregg Lewis. 1973. "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children." Journal of Political Economy 81(2): S279-S288.
  4. [5]5. Boonstra, Heather. 2002. "Teen Pregnancy: Trends and Lessons Learned." Guttmacher Report on Public Policy 5(1): 7-10.
  5. [6]6. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, and Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr. 1989. "Adolescent Sexual Behavior." American Psychologist 44(2): 249-57.
  6. [7]7. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, and Roberta Paikoff. 1997. "Sexuality and Developmental Transitions during Adolescence." In Health Risks and Developmental Transitions during Adolescence, edited by John Schulenberg, Jennifer L. Maggs, and Klaus Hurrelmann, 190-245. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  7. [13]13. Edin, Kathryn, and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  8. [19]19. Grogger, Jeffrey, and Lynn A. Karoly. 2005. Welfare Reform: Effects of a Decade of Change. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  9. [22]22. Hardy, Janet B., and Laurie Schwab Zabin. 1991. Adolescent Pregnancy in an Urban Environment. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
  10. [26]26. Hotz, V. Joseph, Susan Williams McElroy, and Seth Sanders. 2005. "Teenage Childbearing and Its Life Cycle Consequences: Exploiting a Natural Experiment." Journal of Human Resources 40(3): 683-715.
  11. [31]31. Kearney, Melissa S. 2010. "Teen Pregnancy Prevention." Chap. 8 in Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty when Resources are Limited, edited by Phillip B. Levine and David J. Zimmerman. University of Chicago Press.
  12. [33]33. Kearney, Melissa S., and Phillip B. Levine. 2010. "Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Early Childbearing." Chap. 6 in The Problems of Disadvantaged Youth: An Economic Perspective, edited by Jonathan Gruber. University of Chicago Press.
  13. [38]38. Levine, Phillip B. 2004. Sex and Consequences: Abortion, Public Policy, and the Economics of Fertility. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  14. [39]39. Levine, Phillip B., and David J. Zimmerman, eds. 2010. Targeting Investments in Children: Fighting Poverty when Resources are Limited. University of Chicago Press.
  15. [42]42. Martin, Joyce A., Brady E. Hamilton, Paul D. Sutton, Stephanie J. Ventura, T. J. Mathews, and Michelle Osterman. 2010. Births: Final Data for 2008. National Vital Statistics Reports vol. 59, no.
  16. [43]43. Martin, Joyce A., Brady E. Hamilton, Stephanie J. Ventura, Michelle J. K. Osterman, Sharon Kirmeyer, T. J. Mathews, and Elizabeth C. Wilson. 2011. Births: Final Data for 2009. National Vital Statistics Reports, vol. 60, no.
  17. [44]44. Moffitt, Robert A. 1998. "The Effect of Welfare on Marriage and Fertility: What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?" Chap. 4 in Welfare, the Family, and Reproductive Behavior, edited by R. Moffitt. Washington: National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences Press.

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Authors
Kearney, M. S., & Levine, P. B.
Affiliations
National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Publisher
American Economic Association
Published
2012-05-01
Volume
26
Issue
2
Pages
141-166
ISSN
0895-3309 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1257/jep.26.2.141
OpenAlex
W3124477828
Cited by
319
References
22
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 6
FWCI
53.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Journal of Economic Perspectives (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Keywords
teen childbearing, teen birth rates, income inequality, cross-national comparison, adolescent pregnancy, abortion, contraceptive use, teenage sexual activity, economic trajectories, social marginalization, state-level variation, low-income women, United States, Russia, Canada, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, economic opportunities
MeSH terms
Abortion, Induced, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Adult, Birth Rate, Contraception, Contraception Behavior, Data Collection, Demography, Ethnicity, Female, Fertility, Forecasting, Health Services Accessibility, Humans, Income, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Pregnancy, Pregnancy in Adolescence, Sexual Behavior, Sex Education, Sexual Abstinence, Social Alienation, Socioeconomic Factors, United States, Marital Status, Pregnancy Rate, Developed Countries, Racial Groups, Young Adult

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