The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its annual report on all live births in America for the year 2006, and it showed that for the first time in 15 years, the birth rate for teenagers aged 15–19 years increased, up 3 percent from 2005. Only the rate for the youngest adolescents declined in 2006, to 0.6 per 1,000 people aged 10–14 years. Birth rates for teenagers aged 15–17 and 18–19 years rose between 3 and 4 percent each. These increases follow huge declines of 45 and 26 percent, respectively, in the rates between 1991 and 2005. Teen birth rates increased significantly between 2005 and 2006 in 26 states, representing nearly every region of the country. Below is a list of the states with the highest teen birth rates in 2006. The rates per 1,000 females aged 15-19 are listed in parentheses.

The top 10 states with the highest teen birth rates for 2006 are:

1. Mississippi (68.4 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19). Also topping the list in 1991, Mississippi saw its teen birth rate decline 29 percent between 1991 and 2005, but it jumped 13 percent in 2006.
2. New Mexico (64.1). This Southwestern state saw a decline of 23 percent in the teen birth rate over 14 years but the rate held steady in 2006.
3. Texas (63.1). Texas’s teen birth rate rose a modest 2 percent in 2006 after experiencing a 21 percent decline over the previous 14 years.
4. Arkansas (62.3). This Southern state had an increase of 5 percent over last year, reversing a 26 percent decline between 1991 and 2005.
5. Arizona(62.0). Arizona’s teen birth rate rose 7 percent over last year and is a nearly 1.5 times the national average.
6. Oklahoma (59.6). After seeing a decline of 25 percent over 14 years, the rate of teen births in the Sooner state rose 10 percent from 2005.
7. Nevada (55.8). This Western state experienced the largest decline on the list over the previous 14 years, down one-third from 1991-2005. Unfortunately, Nevada reversed the trend and saw an 11 percent increase in 2006.
8. Tennessee (54.7). Tennessee’s teen birth rate was unchanged from 2005, but decreased 27 percent in the previous 14 years.
9. Kentucky (54.6). Tennessee’s neighbor to the North, Kentucky has a nearly identical teen birth rate, but for the Bluegrass State this represents an increase of 11 percent over 2005.
10. Georgia (54.2). Georgia’s teen birth rate declined 31 percent from 1991-2005 but creeped back up 3 percent in 2006.

If you have questions about teenage pregnancy, join the Healia Health Community for Teen Health or the Healia Health Community for Pregnancy, or ask the experts at Healia Health Communities.

Related blog post:  The Top 10 States with the Lowest Teen Birth Rates

_{Source: CDC, Births: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_07.pdf}