Why It Matters

The U.S. teen birth rate reached a historic low of 12.6 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in 2024, declining 3.8% from the prior year, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on adolescent pregnancy. This marks a continuation of a decades-long downward trend that carries significant implications for Congress and the Trump administration's health policy agenda.

Approximately 137,000 of the 3.6 million total births in the United States in 2024 were to teenagers, and research cited in the report estimates that the reduction in teen births between 1991 and 2015 yielded $4.4 billion in savings to public programs including Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Teen parents are more likely to need public assistance than non-teen parents and face lower adult incomes, while their children encounter poorer educational, behavioral, and health outcomes.

Yet the report also raises uncertainty around the current administration's proposed reorganization of federal health agencies.

The Big Picture

The earliest National Center for Health Statistics estimate of the teen birth rate was 54.1 in 1940, peaking at 96.3 in 1957. Rates declined to 50.2 in 1986, then rose to 61.8 by 1991 before beginning a sustained decline that has persisted since 2009, setting new record lows every single year.

The overall decline from the 2007 rate of 41.5 stands at 69.6%. Even more striking, the rate has fallen 79.6% from the 1991 high of 61.8.

The drivers of this decline differ across time periods. Increased contraceptive use, particularly long-acting reversible contraceptives, has been the primary driver since the 1990s. Decreased sexual activity among younger teens, aged 15 to 17, contributed to declines during the 1990s and early 2000s, though general adolescent sexual activity trends have remained relatively stable in recent years. Research also suggests economic factors matter: a one-dollar increase in minimum wage correlates with approximately a 2% decrease in teen births in a given state.

Repeat births to teen parents have declined even more sharply. The rate for second and additional births fell 80% from its peak of 8.1 in 2006 and 2007 to a historic low of 1.7 in 2024. The first-child teen birth rate hit a historic low of 10.9 in 2024.

Significant disparities persist across geography and demographics. Rural areas continue to have higher teen birth rates than urban areas, though rural rates have declined over time. The non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander teen birth rate stood at 20.2 in 2024, down 42.2% from 2016.

The Bottom Line

Congressional attention to teen pregnancy prevention remains warranted despite the historic low, particularly given ongoing uncertainty about whether federal health agency restructuring will preserve the institutional capacity required to sustain these gains or maintain the data collection infrastructure that tracks progress.

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