The percentage of unmarried teen births has dropped?

My rant earlier today triggered a conversation with my Dad...not surprisingly...in which we discussed the alarming rise in births to unmarried women in America as it relates to attaining the American Dream.  40.6% of live births in America in 2007 were to unmarried women.  When I graduated from high school in 1980 it was 18.4%.

But I found it fascinating that in 1970 50% of nonmarital live births were to women 20 years or younger.  In 2007 that number was 23%.  So no longer does unmarried mother mean teen mother.  Indeed, in 1970 8% of births were to unmarried women age 30+.  In 2007 17% were 30+ years old.

We are not alone.  Iceland, Sweden, Norway, France, Denmark and the UK all have a higher percentage of nonmarital births than America.  The Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Spain, Italy and Japan (all the countries the CDC report on) all have increased percentages of nonmarital births  since 1980.  As the CDC says, "The upward trend in nonmarital childbearing seen in the United States is matched in most developed countries, with levels at least doubling or tripling and in some cases increasing many multiples between 1980 and the mid-2000s."

So why these increases in births to unmarried women?  Here's what the CDC thinks.

"The historic increases in nonmarital childbearing result from many factors, including substantial delays in marriage beginning with the baby-boom generation and changes in sexual activity, contraceptive effectiveness and use, and abortion. Many infants are also born to couples in cohabiting relationships: According to the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, about 40% of recent nonmarital births were to cohabiting women. In addition, there have been attitudinal changes. The societal disapproval that unmarried mothers faced at one time has diminished sharply".

That 40% stat is key for two reasons.  It nearly halves that 40.6% of live births to unmarried women I mentioned above.  We used to associate births to unmarried women with unwanted or unplanned children.  But if 40% of nonmarital births are to cohabiting women it indicates that these children are born into homes with two parents (albeit not necessarily a man and a women).  These homes are likely  more stable and perhaps more affluent and probably less dependent upon support from the State than single parent homes.