As the last instalment in our survey of birth rates, let’s take a look at the group 15 to 19 and the other end of the scale for statistics, women aged 40-44 at the time of the child’s birth.
The blue line is the number of births to mothers between ages 15 and 19. From 810 births in 1991 down to 321 in 2010. Note, though that the low point on the blue line is 2005 at 254. Since then the number of births to mothers between 15 and 19 has risen steadily. The rate is lower, though: one in 32 in 1991 compared to one in 46 in 2010.
The numbers of babies born to women between 40 and 45 remains relatively very low. Still, it has doubled in the past two decades from the 52 births in 1991 to the 100 that occurred in 2010.
The red line is the births for mothers aged 35 to 39. It’s there for comparison. In 1991, women in their late 30s gave birth to 387 babies. That is just less than half the number of children born to mothers 19 and under. Two decades later the teenagers are not having as many babies and the older women are having more. Notice, however, that the 2010 moms in the 35 to 39 category still were not having as many babies as the teenagers 20 years earlier.