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 report, titled Social and Economic Characteristics of Currently Unmarried Women With a Recent Birth: 2023, found that in 2023, 30.9% of women with a recent birth were unmarried, down from 35.7% in 2011.
In total, four million women ages 15 to 50 gave birth in the last year. Of these, about 1.2 million were unmarried at the time of their child’s birth. Among those unmarried mothers, approximately 35.5%, or around 450,000 women, lived with an unmarried partner.
The analysis used data from the 2023 American Community Survey and compared it to figures from 2011 when possible. According to the report: “From 2011 to 2023, the percentage of women with a recent birth who were unmarried either decreased or the difference was not statistically significant for every U.S. state and the District of Columbia.”
The data also showed age-related differences. In 2023, most births among teenagers occurred outside marriage; “By age, 90.1% of women ages 15 to 19 with a birth in the last year were unmarried in 2023.” However, there was a notable drop in teenage births among unmarried women—from over 216,000 in 2011 to just over 82,000 in 2023.
Educational attainment played a role as well. Nearly half of all recent mothers without a high school diploma (48.9%) or with only a high school diploma or GED (47.9%) were unmarried in 2023—percentages that are not significantly different from each other for that year. The proportion among those without a high school education dropped since 2011; “In 2011, 57.0% of women with less than a high school education and 49.0% of women who were high school graduates or GED holders with a recent birth were unmarried.” Additionally, more mothers held bachelor’s degrees in recent years: “The percent of those with a recent birth who held a bachelor’s degree was higher in 2023 than 2011 (11.4% compared to 8.8%).”
State-level data showed variation across regions:
– Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia had higher rates of non-marital births than the national average.
– Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin reported lower rates than average.
For further details on fertility statistics and related information see the Census Bureau’s Fertility webpage.
