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More Than Half of Births to Women Under 30 Occur Outside Marriage

The New York Times reported on research from Child Trends, a Washington research group, showing that more than half of births to women under 30 occur outside marriage. The article remarked that “once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America.”

The study also showed that, among women of all ages, 59 percent are married when they have children but nearly two-thirds of all children born in the U.S. are born to women under 30. The article also pointed out racial and educational differences, with “73 percent of black children born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And about 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less.”

The article also pointed out that “researchers have consistently found that children born outside marriage face elevated risks of falling into poverty, failing in school or suffering emotional and behavioral problems.”