Women are redefining the traditional idea of family as more choose to prioritize their financial and professional goals, putting off having children until later in life.
For the first time, the average age of American women giving birth reached 27 years in the US, the highest on record and up from 21 years old in 1970 – when the government first began tracking the ages of new moms.
That age is even higher among college-educated women, whose average age at first birth is around 30 years old.
The age of first-time mothers, however, varies among states, with coastal areas and liberal hamlets having on average a higher age at first pregnancy compared to rural areas, the Great Plains, and the South.
Nine of the top 10 states for the youngest first-time mothers were located in the south, while coastal states and liberal enclaves in the northeast had higher proportions of older women becoming mothers for the first time.
The Birth Injury Lawyers Group analyzed 2021 birth rate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was expressed as the number of births per 1,000 women in two separate age groups – teenagers and older adults in their 40s.
Arkansas had the largest share of youngest new mothers on average, with a birth rate of 26.5 births per 1,000 women in the 15 to 19 age group, nearly twice the national average of 13.9 births per 1,000 women in that age range.
Mississippi had the second highest proportion of youngest new mothers on average, with 25.6 births per 1,000 women in that age range, more than 82 percent above the national average.
Louisiana took spot number three with 24.5 births per 1,000 women 15 to 19 years old.
Oklahoma came in fourth and Alabama rounded out the top five.
Completing the top 10 was Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Texas and New Mexico, where the rate of births in women 15 to 19 age range was about 37 percent above the national average.
Meanwhile, with the exceptions of Hawaii, California, and Alaska, all of the states with the largest shares of the oldest new mothers on average were located on the eastern seaboard.
New York had the largest share of older first-time moms of all states, with a birth rate of 17.5 births per 1,000 women in the 40 to 44 age group.
New York’s birth rate among older new moms was about 46 percent above the national average birth rate for women in that age group.
The US average is 12 births per 1,000 women ages 40 to 44.
New Jersey had the second-highest share of older new mothers on average, with a rate of 17 births per 1,000 women 40 to 44, which is about 42 percent above the national average.
Hawaii and California took spots three and four and Massachusetts landed in fifth.
Rounding out the top 10 were Maryland, Alaska and Connecticut (tied for seventh), Virginia, and Rhode Island.
National data from the CDC has previously shown the birth rate for women aged 40 to 44 rose four percent in 2022 from the previous year, reaching a record high.
There was also a 12 percent uptick among women who were aged 45 to 49 years old, from 0.9 births per 1,000 women in 2021 to 1.1 in 2022, the first change in this rate since 2015, and another record level.
The increase among older women having children comes as America’s fertility rate hovers at just below 1.7 births per woman. It hit a record low in 2020 at 1.6 when the pandemic led many couples to put off having children.
For women aged 40 to 44 years, the fertility rate was 12.5 births per 1,000 women, while for those in the older age group, it was 1.1 per 1,000.
But birth rates continued to decline among women aged 20 to 34 years — and hit a record low among those aged 20 to 24 years.
Among teenagers, the rate hit a record low of 13.9 births per 1,000 women in the age group — after falling eight percent from 2007 to 2021.
The number of American women with at least one child has fallen to just 52.1 percent, while the number of men dropped to 39.7 percent in 2019
More people are putting off starting a family until later in life, instead choosing to focus on their career, travel and social life in their younger years.
Experts have blamed plummeting birth rates on the ‘Instagram’ generation prioritizing careers, traveling and their social lives over having babies.
Dr Melissa Kearney, an economic professor at the University of Maryland, previously told DailyMail.com: ‘There has been a greater emphasis on spending time building careers. Adults are changing their attitudes towards having kids.
‘They are choosing to spend money and time in different ways… [that] are coming into conflict with parenting.’
Others have also raised concerns over the rising cost of living and student debt, which they say leave many feeling financially unable to start a family until later in life.
A survey by the personal financing company Bankrate found only 26 percent of childless adults say they feel financially secure.
A poll of 1,500 American adults by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek published in April found more than 50 percent of Gen Zers and Millennials between the ages 18 to 34 said that they would consider having children if the cost of living was lower.
The rise of technologies such as in vitro-fertilization (IVF) and egg freezing have also played a role, as more and more women gain access to fertility-preserving care to conceive later on in life when they feel ready.