U.S. MOTHERHOOD FACTS
- 82.5 million women are mothers of all ages in the United States.
- 68% of women in Mississippi aged 15–44 are mothers, considered high in comparison to a national average for same age group of 56%.
- 82% of women aged 40–44 years old are mothers.
- 4.0 million women give birth annually, approximately 425,000 were teenage mothers (aged 15–19) and more than 100,000 were aged 40 or over.
- 25.1 years of age is the national average age of women for their first births, a record high an increase of 4 years since 1970.
- 40% of annual births are the mother's first. Another 32% are the second-born; 17%, third; and 11%, fourth or more.
- 35,000 births in 2002 were attended by physicians, midwives or others outside a hospital facility.
- 55% of mothers with infant children in 2002 were employed, down from the record 59% in 1998, the first significant decline since the Census Bureau began collating such data in 1976. In 1976, 31% of mothers with infants were employed.
- 63% of employed women with infant children are college-educated.
- 72% of employed women, between ages 15 and 44 are mothers without infants.
- 687,000 child day-care centers operated in the USA in 2002. Of these, 69,000 centers employed close to 750,000 workers and another 618,000 were self-employed persons or companies without paid employees. Many mothers use such centers to juggle the demands of motherhood and career. [Source:US Census Bureau]
