The U.S. teen birth rate fell 7% in 2025, continuing a decades-long decline, according to a provisional report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate for females ages 15 to 19 was 11.7 births per 1,000, with nearly 126,000 babies born to mothers in that age group. By comparison, the teen birth rate in 1991 was 61.8 per 1,000.
Brady Hamilton, the report’s lead author and a statistician demographer at the center, described the decline as “really quite extraordinary.” The provisional release, prepared each spring from more than 99% of registered births, gives an early look at key measures before the final data are published, usually in August.
The report also found the overall birth rate edged down 1% from the prior year. The preterm birth rate stayed about the same, while the cesarean delivery rate rose to 32.5% in 2025 — the highest level since 2013 and part of a modest upward trend. This provisional report covers fewer topics than some recent releases and does not include an analysis of births by maternal race or ethnicity; the CDC notes those details remain available through its WONDER online database.
Why the decline?
Birth certificates provide a wide range of demographic and geographic information, but they don’t explain why trends change, Hamilton said. Researchers point to multiple factors that likely contributed to the long-term drop in teen births: greater use of contraception, declines in sexual activity among young people, and continued access to abortion care, according to Bianca Allison, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
How the change is viewed depends on perspective. Allison, a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, says the falling teen birth rate is a positive development when it reflects young people’s preferences and their ability to obtain reproductive health care. At the same time, she warns against framing teen parenthood solely as a failure that leads to poor education or career outcomes, noting that many negative consequences come from insufficient social, institutional, and systemic support rather than from young people’s capacity to parent.
Allison urges continued investment in supports for teen parents — including educational, social and medical resources — so that those who do become parents have the services and stability they need to thrive.