Why Is This Important?

Nonmarital births are at higher risk of having adverse birth outcomes such as low birthweight, preterm birth, and infant mortality than are children born to married women.¹ Children born to single mothers typically have more limited social and financial resources.²

Definition

Marital status was determined by response to the following questions on the birth certificate:

• For years 1970-1978 - Legitimate?
• For years 1979-1988 - Is mother married?
• For years after 1988 - Mother married? (At birth, conception, or any time between)

Data Sources

• Birth Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  (https://www.nj.gov/health/vital/)
• National Vital Statistics Reports, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/nvsr.htm)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

The proportion of births to unmarried New Jersey mothers had been steadily increasing for several decades but peaked around 2012 and has been generally declining since then. The rates among Blacks and Hispanics are more than triple the rate among Whites, and the White rate is more than triple the rate among Asians. Among those aged 25-44, the proportion of births to unmarried women in 2022 was more than double the rate in 1990. The share of births to unmarried mothers ranges from 14.0% in Hunterdon to 66.1% in Cumberland County.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

Since 1985, the proportion of births to unmarried women among New Jersey residents has been below that of the nation as a whole. In 2022, the rate was 17% lower in New Jersey than in the U.S. as a whole.

More Resources

Unmarried Childbearing FastStats. National Center for Health Statistics.

Driscoll AK, Hamilton BE, Curtin SC, Chong Y, Lu L, et al. Births and Birth Rates to Unmarried Women in the United States, Selected Years 1940-2015. National Center for Health Statistics. 2017.

Martinez GM. Three Decades of Nonmarital First Births Among Fathers Aged 15-44 in the United States. NCHS Data Brief No. 204, June 2015.

Curtin SC, Ventura SJ, Martinez GM. Recent Declines in Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States. NCHS Data Brief No. 162, August 2014.

Ventura SJ. Changing Patterns of Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States. NCHS Data Brief No. 18, May 2009.

Footnote References

1. Ventura SJ, Bachrach CA, Nonmarital childbearing in the United States, 1940-99. National vital statistics reports; vol 48 no 16. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2000.

2. McLanahan S. The consequences of nonmarital childbearing for women, children, and society. In: National Center for Health Statistics. Report to Congress on Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 1995.