Utah's teen birthrate ranks 18th in nation

Mississippi has the nation's highest teen-pregnancy rate, according to a federal report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday.

The total teenage birthrate in Utah is 34 per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19. Among the 15-17 year olds, the birthrate was 16.4 per 1,000, and for those 18-19, it was 58.5. Overall, Utah was No. 18 among the states for teenage birthrate. Mississippi had the highest rate, at 68.4. The national teenage birthrate was 41.9 per 1,000.

The report is based on data from the year 2006, the most recent that is available. It says that in 2006, 53,504 live births occurred in Utah, which counts all moms, not just teen moms. Utah had the lowest percentage of live births to unmarried women, at 10,071, or 18.8 percent. The highest percentages were in Louisiana, Mississippi and New Mexico (between 50 and 53 percent).

The mean age when Utah women had a first child was 23.9 years of age. Massachusetts' first-time moms were the oldest, 27.7, while the youngest were in Mississippi, 22.6.

Not surprisingly, Utah had the highest crude birthrate, at 21 per 1,000 total population, quite different from Vermont at the other extreme, with 10.4. Those two were also at the extremes of the fertility rates, with Utah's high of 94.1 and Vermont's low of 52.2 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years.

Utah and Idaho have the lowest percentage of deliveries by C-section (less than 23 percent), while Florida and New Jersey have the highest (more than 36 percent).

Utah was also the best in terms of very low birth weight, classed as less than 1500 grams or 3.3 pounds, along with Oregon and Washington (1 percent). The worst rates were in Louisiana, Mississippi and the District of Columbia.

The study also said that 80.2 percent of Utah moms began receiving prenatal care in the first trimester, but 3.9 percent had late or no prenatal care.

The entire report is online at www.cdc.gov.

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E-mail: Lois@desnews.com