The percentage of women who gave birth while unmarried has declined over the past decade, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. The study, titled Social and Economic Characteristics of Currently Unmarried Women With a Recent Birth: 2023, found that in 2011, 35.7% of women with a recent birth were unmarried. By 2023, this figure had dropped to 30.9%. In terms of actual numbers, fewer than 1.5 million women were unmarried with a recent birth in 2011 compared to about 1.2 million in 2023.
In total, four million women aged 15 to 50 gave birth during the previous year in 2023. Of the approximately 1.2 million who were unmarried at the time of their child’s birth, about one-third—35.5% or around 450,000—lived with an unmarried partner.
The analysis is based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS) for both years and compares trends by state and demographic characteristics where possible.
From 2011 to 2023, either a decrease or no statistically significant change was observed in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia regarding the share of recent births among unmarried women.
Teenage mothers continued to have high rates of nonmarital births; in 2023, about nine out of ten (90.1%) females ages 15 to19 who gave birth were not married at the time. However, there was also a notable decline in numbers: from more than 216,000 unmarried teenage mothers with a recent birth in 2011 down to roughly 82,500 in 2023.
Educational attainment was also examined:
– In both years studied, nearly half of women without a high school diploma or only holding a GED/high school diploma who had given birth recently were unmarried.
– Specifically for those with less than high school education: the share decreased from about57%in2011to48.9%in2023.
– For high school graduates/GED holders: there was no statistically significant change between years.
– More women holding bachelor’s degrees reported recent births in2023(11.4%) compared with2011(8.8%).
Geographic differences emerged as well:
States including Alabama, Florida,Kentucky,Louisiana,Mississippi,Nevada,Ohio,South Carolina ,Texas,and West Virginia reported higher-than-average shares of nonmarital births.
Meanwhile Colorado ,Idaho ,Iowa ,Kansas ,Minnesota ,New Hampshire ,New Jersey ,New York ,North Dakota ,South Dakota ,Utah ,Virginia,Vermont ,Washington,and Wisconsin had lower-than-average shares.
For additional details on fertility trends and related data resources,the Census Bureau provides information on its Fertility webpage (https://www.census.gov/topics/health/fertility.html).
