Return to Table of Contents Go to Map
Births to Unmarried Teens
Births to Unmarried Teens is the percent of all births to unmarried teens 15-19
years of age. Seventy percent (4,669 out of 6,680) of the Arkansas teens who
gave birth in 1998 were unmarried. Many of the factors associated with births
to unmarried women are also associated with births to unmarried teens. By
definition, unmarried teen mothers are young and have not completed their
formal educations. They are also frequently poor and receive inadequate
prenatal care.
Calculation of the Births to Unmarried Teens percent is identical to the Births
to Unmarried Women percent, except that it uses data for women 15-19 years of
age. In 1998, there were 4,669 births to unmarried teens (aged 15-19), out of
a total of 36,831 births. Therefore, the percent of Births to Unmarried Teens
= (4,669 / 36,831) X 100 = 12.7 percent.
Births to unmarried teens were highest in eastern Arkansas in the Delta region.
For the 1994-1998 period, Phillips County had the highest percentage of births
to unmarried teens, accounting for 28.7 percent of live births in that county.
Alternatively, Montgomery County had the lowest percentage of births to
unmarried teens during the period, with only 6.3 percent.
The patterns of percent of births to unmarried teens for the ADH Health
Management Areas closely reflect those of births to unmarried women, as might
be expected, since births to unmarried teens account for roughly 36 percent
of births to unmarried women. During the five-year period, Area 9 had the
highest average with 23.3 percent and Areas 10 and 3 had the lowest with 9.1
percent each.
Once again, races are significantly different. The average percent of births
to White unmarried teens from 1994-1998 was 8.4, while the percent of births to
Black unmarried teens was 27.4.
Although the percentage of births to unmarried Arkansas teens has gone up and
down slightly in the last five years, it has still remained fairly constant.
There has only been one statistically significant increase in this five-year
period, going from 12.2 percent in 1995 to 12.8 in 1996. In 1998, 12.7 percent
of births were to unmarried teens. The average percentage of births to
unmarried teens from 1994-1998 was 12.5.
As with births to unmarried women, the reader should be cautioned that the
percent of births to unmarried teens is influenced by several factors. These
include the fertility of both unmarried and married teens, as well as their
relative distributions in the population. While a fertility rate based on the
number of unmarried teens in the population is more desirable, such information
is only available for census years.
Return to Table of Contents Go to Map