Births: Final Data for 2014

NCHS has released a new report that presents 2014 data on U.S. births according to a wide variety of characteristics.

Data are presented for maternal age, live-birth order, race and Hispanic origin, marital status, attendant at birth, method of delivery, period of gestation, birthweight,and plurality.

Birth and fertility rates are presented by age, live-birth order, race and Hispanic origin, and marital status.

Key Findings:

• In 2014, 3,988,076 births were registered in the United States, up 1% from 2013.
• The general fertility rate rose slightly to 62.9 per 1,000 women aged 15–44, the first increase in the rate since 2007.
• The teen birth rate fell 9% from 2013 to 2014, to 24.2 per 1,000 females aged 15–19.
• Birth rates declined for women in their early 20s but increased for women aged 25–39.
• The total fertility rate (estimated number of births over a woman’s lifetime) rose slightly to 1,862.5 births per 1,000 women.
• The birth rate for unmarried women declined for the sixth straight year.
• The cesarean delivery rate declined to 32.2%.
• The preterm birth rate declined 1% to 9.57%, but the low birthweight rate was essentially unchanged at 8%.
• The 2014 twin birth rate was 33.9 per 1,000 births, a new high for the United States; the triplet and higher-order multiple birth rate dropped 5% to 113.5 per 100,000 total births.