Estimates of pregnancies and pregnancy rates for the United States, 1976-85

Abstract

After increasing by 9 per cent in the period 1976-80 in the United States, pregnancy rates declined by 4 per cent between 1980 and 1984 (from 111.9 to 107.3 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years). Between 1984 and 1985, the rate rose by less than 1 per cent to 108.2. More detailed data by age and race, available only through 1983, indicate that the decline in the 1980-83 period was not shared by all age groups. For example, pregnancy rates continued to increase for women in their thirties, and teenage pregnancy remained substantially the same. In 1983, 61 per cent of all pregnancies ended in live birth, 26 per cent in induced abortion, and 13 per cent in fetal loss. Pregnancy rates in that year were two-thirds higher for women of races other than White than for White women, and pregnancies of other-than-White women were more likely to terminate as an induced abortion or fetal loss. However, White teenagers and teenagers of other races were about equally likely to have their pregnancy end in induced abortion or fetal loss.