Monthly Vital Statistics Reports

Report of Final Natality Statistics, 1995

There were 3,899,589 registered births in the United States in 1995. This is the fifth consecutive year that births declined after reaching a high of 4,158,212 births in 1990. This report includes estimates of births by State, births to teenage mothers, and births by maternal lifestyle characteristics. Data are obtained from birth certificates filed from vital registration offices in the United States.

Data Highlights:

• Birth rates for teenagers declined 3 to 4 percent in 1995, to 36.0 per 1,000 women aged 15-17 years and 89.1 per 1,000 women aged 18-19 years. The overall rate for teenagers was 56.8 per 1,000, 4 percent lower than in 1994 (58.9). Recent declines in abortion rates combined with these reductions in birth rates for teenagers indicate that the teenage pregnancy rate has continued to fall in the 1990's.
• Measures of childbearing by unmarried women declined 3 percent in 1995. The number of nonmarital births totaled 1,253,976 in 1995, and 32.2 percent of all births were to unmarried women.
• In 1995 electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) was the most prevalent obstetric procedure performed. EFM usage in 1995 rose for the sixth consecutive year.
• Data on the methods of delivery show that the rate of cesarean delivery declined for the sixth consecutive year and was 9 percent lower in 1995 than in 1989.
• The number of twin births declined very slightly for 1995 to 96,736, but the number of triplet and other higher order multiple births rose by 8 percent to 4,973 births. As a result, the multiple births ratio rose to 26.1 per 1,000 live births and the triplet and other higher order multiple birth ratio rose 10 percent to 127.5 per 100,000, double the ratio reported for 1989 (69.2)

Keywords: birth certificate, maternal and infant health, birth rates, maternal characteristics