In 2015, a total of 229,715 babies were born to women aged 15–19 years, for a birth rate of 22.3 per 1,000 women in this age group. This is another record low for U.S. teens and a drop of 8% from 2014. Birth rates fell 9% for women aged 15–17 years and 7% for women aged 18–19 years.1
Although reasons for the declines are not totally clear, evidence suggests these declines are due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity, and more teens who are sexually active using birth control than in previous years.2,3
Still, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than in other western industrialized nations4, and racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in teen birth rates persist. Read more: https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/