JAN. 28, 2026 — The percentage of women with a recent birth who were unmarried decreased by 4.8 percentage points, from 35.7% (or under 1.5 million) in 2011 to 30.9% (or 1.2 million) in 2023, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report titled Social and Economic Characteristics of Currently Unmarried Women With a Recent Birth: 2023.

In 2023, four million women ages 15 to 50 gave birth in the last year. Of the 1.2 million women with a recent birth who were unmarried, 35.5% (or around 450,000) lived with an unmarried partner.

The report uses 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) data to explore social and economic characteristics of unmarried women with a recent birth and makes comparisons, when possible, to an earlier report that used 2011 ACS 1-year estimates.

• From 2011 to 2023, the percentage of women with a recent birth who were unmarried either decreased or the difference was not statistically significant for every U.S. state and the District of Columbia.
• By age, 90.1% of women ages 15 to 19 with a birth in the last year were unmarried in 2023. However, the number of unmarried women ages 15 to 19 with a recent birth in 2011 (216,436) decreased by more than half in 2023 (82,530).
• In terms of educational attainment:
  • In 2023, 48.9% of women with less than a high school education and 47.9% of high school graduates or GED holders with a recent birth were unmarried. These percentages are not significantly different from one another.
  • In 2011, 57.0% of women with less than a high school education and 49.0% of women who were high school graduates or GED holders with a recent birth were unmarried.
  • The percentage of women with less than a high school education with a birth in the last year who were unmarried decreased from 2011 to 2023, while the percentage of women who were high school graduates or GED holders with a birth in the last year who were unmarried was not significantly different in 2023 compared to 2011.
  • The percent of those with a recent birth who held a bachelor’s degree was higher in 2023 than 2011 (11.4% compared to 8.8%).
• Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia had higher percentages of recent births to unmarried women than the national average.
• Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin had lower percentages of recent births to unmarried women than the national average.

For more information on fertility, visit the Census Bureau’s Fertility webpage.

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