National Center for Family and Marriage Research Family Profiles

Document Type

Report

Abstract

In 2024, the CDC issued a report indicating the United States’ general fertility rate (i.e., the total number of births in the year divided by the female population ages 15-44) has decreased for a second year in a row to 54.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2023, which is a decline of 3% from 2022 (Hamilton et al., 2024). Although the fertility rate has declined in the United States, it remains important to explore the marital status of mothers who are giving birth as the share of births to unmarried women accounted for nearly one-third (31%) of all births in 2020 (Brown, 2022). Demographers have tracked the decoupling of marriage and childbearing in the United States (Hayford, Guzzo, & Smock, 2014) and although we identify this trend using the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) for women aged 15-50, we also note an increase in the share of births to married compared to unmarried mothers across a 10-year period (2012-2022). In addition to presenting the 10- year trend in births by women’s marital status in the last year, we also present demographic characteristics (educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and age) of currently married and unmarried women aged 15-50 who had a birth in the last 12 months. This profile is an update of FP-20-17 and FP-22-13.

Publication Date

2024

Publisher

National Center for Family and Marriage Research

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