On boilerplate, U.S. women desire to have two children. To accomplish that goal, a woman volition spend shut to 3 years meaning, postpartum or attempting to become significant, and nearly 3 decades—more than three-quarters of her reproductive life—trying to avoid pregnancy.1

DEFINING PREGNANCY DESIRES

Although researchers have been measuring unintended pregnancy for decades, the conventional approach to categorizing recalled pregnancy desires does not capture the complexities of women's and couples' desires, their experiences prior to pregnancy or the context in which a pregnancy occurs. As a result, sources of data available to characterize pregnancy desires and experiences are limited. The Guttmacher Found is aware of these limitations, and our experts are working to address them in our piece of work. The findings included in this fact sheet are the most current available.

An unintended pregnancy is one that occurred when a woman wanted to go meaning in the future just not at the time she became pregnant ("wanted after") or 1 that occurred when she did not desire to become significant and so or at any time in the future ("unwanted"). In this fact sail, births resulting from unintended pregnancies are referred to as "unplanned."

All other pregnancies are oft termed "intended," including those that were desired at the time they occurred or were wanted sooner than they occurred ("and then or sooner"). At the national level, pregnancies to women who were indifferent or unsure about condign pregnant are typically combined with pregnancies that were wanted then or sooner. Information technology is important to note that women defined as having an "intended" pregnancy have not necessarily expressed an intention or plan to become pregnant.

PREGNANCY INCIDENCE

  • In 2011, there were 98 pregnancies for every 1,000 women aged 15–44 in the United States.2
  • In 2011, in that location were 45 unintended pregnancies for every 1,000 women aged 15–44 in the United states. In other words, nearly 5% of reproductive-age women have an unintended pregnancy each year.2
  • The unintended pregnancy rate is significantly college in the United States than in many other adult countries.3
  • In 2011, virtually half (45%, or 2.8 one thousand thousand) of the 6.1 1000000 pregnancies in the U.s.a. were unintended. Specifically, 27% of all pregnancies were "wanted later" and eighteen% of pregnancies were "unwanted."2

DEMOGRAPHIC differences

Understanding demographic differences in unintended pregnancy helps to place where to focus policy and programmatic interventions, and highlights areas of inequality. These differences do non occur in a vacuum; they reflect differences in social, cultural, structural, economical and political contexts, which influence wellness behaviors, access to services and outcomes.

  • Unintended pregnancy rates are highest amidst low-income women (i.eastward., women with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level), women aged 18–24, cohabiting women and women of color.ii Rates tend to be lowest among higher-income women (at or above 200% of poverty), white women, college graduates and married women.
  • The rate of unintended pregnancy among women with incomes less than 100% of the poverty was 112 per 1,000 in 2011, more five times the rate among women with incomes of at to the lowest degree 200% of poverty (20 per one,000 women). 2
  • The proportion of pregnancies that are unintended more often than not decreases with age. The highest unintended pregnancy rate in 2011 was among women aged 20–24 (81 per 1,000 women).2 Nonetheless, traditional estimates understate the risk of unintended pregnancy among adolescents considering these estimates typically include all women, whether or not they are sexually active. When rates are recalculated including merely those sexually active, women aged 15–xix have the highest unintended pregnancy rate of any age-grouping.iv
  • Cohabiting women had a higher rate of unintended pregnancy compared with both unmarried noncohabiting women (141 vs. 36–54 per 1,000) and married women (29 per ane,000).2
  • At 79 per ane,000, the unintended pregnancy rate for non-Hispanic blackness women in 2011 was more than than double that of not-Hispanic white women (33 per ane,000). two
  • Women without a loftier school caste had the highest unintended pregnancy rate amongst those of any educational level in 2011 (73 per 1,000), and rates were lower with each level of educational attainment.2
  • At that place are also differences in rates of outcomes of unintended pregnancies across population groups. In 2011, women with incomes beneath 100% of poverty had an unplanned birth rate nearly vii times that of women at or above 200% of poverty. 2

TRENDS

  • In the Us, the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended increased slightly between 2001 and 2008 (from 48% to 51%), merely, by 2011, the proportion decreased to 45%.2,5
  • Following a long menses of minimal change, the overall unintended pregnancy rate (the number of unintended pregnancies per 1,000 women aged fifteen–44) decreased substantially from 54 in 2008 to 45 in 2011, a decline of eighteen%. This is the lowest rate since at to the lowest degree 1981 and is probable due to an overall increment in contraceptive apply and the utilize of highly effective contraceptive methods.two
  • Between 1981 and 2008, the unintended pregnancy rate among low-income women rose, while the charge per unit amidst higher-income women declined steadily. Between 2008 and 2011, however, the charge per unit among women with incomes beneath poverty dropped from 137 per i,000 women anile 15–44 to 112 per one,000—an 18% decline in just 3 years. The rate among women at or above 200% of poverty decreased 20% between 2008 and 2011.2,five
  • The unintended pregnancy rate amidst adolescents has been declining since the late 1980s. Between 2008 and 2011, the unintended pregnancy charge per unit among women aged 18–19 declined twenty%, and the unplanned nascency rate declined 21%. Among women aged 15–17, the unintended pregnancy charge per unit declined 44% during the same period, and the unplanned nativity rate declined 47%.two

OUTCOMES OF UNINTENDED PREGNANCY

  • In 2011, 42% of unintended pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) ended in abortion, and 58% concluded in nascence. This was a pocket-sized shift from 2008, when 40% concluded in abortion and 60% ended in birth.two
  • The unplanned birth rate in 2011 was 22 per 1,000 women aged 15–44.8 In that same year, the abortion rate was 17 per 1,000 women.6
  • The proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in nascency decreased across all racial and indigenous groups betwixt 2008 and 2011. The proportion of women experiencing an unintended pregnancy and choosing to end it in abortion was higher among blackness women (50%) than among women in other racial and ethnic groups (36–40%).ii
  • In 2011, a lower proportion of women beneath poverty (38%) than of women at 100–199% of poverty (44%) or of college-income women (48%) chose to end an unintended pregnancy by abortion. Consequently, women below poverty had a relatively high unplanned birth rate compared with women above poverty (60 vs. 9–28 per 1,000 women aged 15–44).2
  • The proportion of births that fathers report every bit unplanned—about four in ten in a 2006–2010 study—is similar to that reported past mothers. The proportion varied significantly according to fathers' union condition, age, education level, and race and ethnicity.vii

PREVENTING UNINTENDED PREGNANCY

  • Publicly funded family planning services help women avoid pregnancies they do not want and plan pregnancies they practice want. In 2014, these services helped women avoid two million unintended pregnancies, which would likely accept resulted in 900,000 births and nearly 700,000 abortions.8
  • Without publicly funded family planning services, U.S. rates of unintended pregnancy, and resulting births and abortions for 2014 would have been 68% higher.8
  • In 2010, the nationwide public investment in family planning services resulted in $xiii.6 billion in cyberspace savings from helping women avoid unintended pregnancies and a range of other negative reproductive wellness outcomes, such equally HIV and other STIs, cervical cancer and infertility.9