Unintended Pregnancy - By Country/region - United States of America

United States of America

The United States rate of unintended pregnancies is higher than the world average, and much higher than that in other industrialized nations. Almost half (49%) of U.S. pregnancies are unintended, more than 3 million unintended pregnancies per year.

A 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources determined that the average U.S. rate of unintended pregnancies was 51 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2006. Most states' rates were between 40 and 65 unintended pregnancies per 1,000 women. The state with the highest rate of unintended pregnancies was Mississippi, 69 per 1,000 women, followed by California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii and Nevada (66 to 67 per 1,000). New Hampshire had the lowest rate, 36 per 1,000 women, followed by Maine, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia (37 to 39 per 1,000 women).

Over 92% of abortions are the result of unintended pregnancy, unintended pregnancies result in about 1.3 million abortions/year. The rate of abortions is higher in the United States than in other developed countries because of the higher rate of unintended pregnancies in the US. In 2001, 44% of unintended pregnancies resulted in births, and 42% resulted in induced abortion and the rest in miscarriage. It is estimated that more than half of US women have had an unintended pregnancy by age 45. The U.S. states with the highest levels of abortions performed were Delaware, New York and New Jersey, with rates of 40, 38 and 31 per 1,000 women, respectively. High rates were also seen in the states of Maryland, California, Florida, Nevada and Connecticut (25 to 29 per 1,000 women). The state with the lowest abortion rate was Wyoming, which had less than 1 per 1,000 women, followed by Mississippi, Kentucky, South Dakota, Idaho and Missouri (5 to 6 abortions per 1,000 women).