Births to Unmarried Mothers (2025)
About two in five U.S. births are to unmarried mothers, but the rate ranges from the overwhelming majority of teen births to a small minority among the most educated.
Key findings
- Roughly two in five U.S. births were to unmarried mothers in 2025: 38.4% (1,240,222 births).
- It falls sharply with age, from 91.4% among mothers under 20 to 27.8% among mothers 40 and older.
- Education is an even stronger divide: 50.7% of births to mothers with an eighth-grade education or less were nonmarital, versus 6.0% for mothers with a doctorate or professional degree.
- Marriage and childbearing have decoupled across much of the distribution, but they remain tightly linked at the top of the education ladder.
The share of births outside marriage is one of the most-watched social statistics in the country. This measures it for every 2025 U.S. birth with a reported marital status, and shows how sharply it varies by the mother's age and education. These are exact counts from the near-census of birth records.
Nonmarital births, 2025
Unmarried share by mother's education
| Category | Unmarried share |
|---|---|
| 8th grade or less | 50.7% |
| 9th to 12th grade, no diploma | 72% |
| High school graduate or GED | 60.7% |
| Some college, no degree | 46.5% |
| Associate degree | 32.4% |
| Bachelor's degree | 13.9% |
| Master's degree | 8.5% |
| Doctorate or professional degree | 6% |
By age group
| Mother age | Unmarried share |
|---|---|
| Under 20 | 91.4% |
| 20 to 24 | 65.7% |
| 25 to 29 | 39.1% |
| 30 to 34 | 26.0% |
| 35 to 39 | 24.3% |
| 40 and older | 27.8% |
Among births with a reported marital status (married or unmarried). Exact counts; no sampling margins of error.
Data Sources & Methodology
The figures on this page are computed directly from the source data below. Narrative text accompanies the figures but never generates them.
CDC/NCHS Natality (Births) Public Use File
- Vintage:
- 2025
- Access:
- BigQuery
- Cadence:
- annual
A near-census of U.S. births for the year, drawn from birth certificates. Each row is one birth, carrying the age, education, race and Hispanic origin, and marital status of the mother; prenatal care, pre-pregnancy BMI, and smoking; the delivery method, attendant, birth place, and payer; and the sex, birth weight, gestational age, plurality, and Apgar score of the infant. It supports analysis of who is being born and how, by maternal characteristics.
Every U.S. birth is registered on a birth certificate, which NCHS compiles into an annual public-use micro-file. Each record describes one birth and its mother.
The file covers essentially all registered births in the data year, not a probability sample. Statistics are exact counts; there are no sampling weights and no sampling margins of error.
To protect confidentiality, the public-use file omits state and county. Analyses here are national and by maternal and infant characteristics; state-level figures require CDC WONDER or the restricted-use file.
Gestational age uses the obstetric estimate (combined gestation); birth weight is in grams; delivery method distinguishes vaginal from cesarean; some reported items (education, payer, smoking) carry reporting flags for areas that had not adopted the 2003 certificate revision.
- No state or county geography in the public-use file.
- A few items (for example payer and smoking) were not reported by every area in early revision years; reporting flags identify coverage.
- The final annual file lags roughly a year; provisional counts via CDC WONDER are more timely but less detailed.
- Birth-certificate data depend on accurate completion by hospitals and reporting areas.
How these figures were produced
- Estimate type:
- Administrative near-census (exact counts)
- Weighting:
- None (not a weighted sample)
Suggested citation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2025 Natality Public Use File. Analysis by Matt George, itsmattgeorge.com. Retrieved 2026-10-24.