{"id":42146,"date":"2009-03-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2009\/03\/19\/public-has-split-verdict-on-increased-level-of-unmarried-motherhood\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:29:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:29:00","slug":"public-has-split-verdict-on-increased-level-of-unmarried-motherhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2009\/03\/19\/public-has-split-verdict-on-increased-level-of-unmarried-motherhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Has Split Verdict on Increased Level of Unmarried Motherhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Out-of-wedlock births rose to record levels in 2007, accounting for four-in-ten of all U.S. births that year, according to newly released preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share of births to unmarried women has been rising for decades, but the increase has accelerated since 2002. The number of out-of-wedlock births has gone up 26% since then. The new National Center for Health Statistics report<\/a> indicates that all measures of births to unmarried women rose to historic highs in 2007 — the number of births (1.7 million), birth rate and proportion of births.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans say that the growing prevalence of births to unwed mothers is a problem for society, but responses are more mixed — and differ sharply by generation — on the question of whether it is always wrong for an unmarried woman to have a baby, according to a 2007 Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, there is a stronger consensus in public opinion about the social cost of out-of-wedlock births than there is about the morality of these births.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the Pew Research survey, two-thirds (66%) of all respondents said that more single women having children is a bad thing for society, and 59% said that more unmarried couples having children is a bad thing for society. These trends generated the most concern among a number of recent demographic changes related to marriage and parenting that respondents were asked to judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responses are more mixed, however, on the question of whether unmarried women having children is wrong or not. A slight majority of Americans (52%) say it is wrong only sometimes (33%) or not wrong at all (19%). A quarter (26%) say it is always wrong and 18% say it is almost always wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the question of whether unmarried women having children is wrong, there are no differences by gender. But attitudes do differ by generation. Most people ages 18-49 say that births out of wedlock are wrong only sometimes or not at all. Americans ages 50-64 are evenly split on this question. And among Americans 65 and older, two-thirds say unmarried births are always or almost always wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pew Research Center survey was conducted by telephone from February 16 through Match 14, 2007, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,020 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a stronger consensus in public opinion about the social cost of out-of-wedlock births than there is about the morality of these 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