California’s teen birth rate in 2006 increased for the first time in 15 years, costing state taxpayers $1.7 billion annually, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Oakland, Calif.-based Public Health Institute, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
According to the report, there were 37.8 births per 1,000 teen girls in the state in 2006, compared with 37.2 births per 1,000 teens in 2005 (Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, 5/21). The total number of teen births in the state increased to 52,770 in 2006 from 50,433 in 2004 (Kisken, Ventura County Star, 5/21). The report examined teen births for 15 to 19 year olds, the standard age group reported to the state Department of Public Health and other government agencies, according to study author Norman Constantine, a clinical professor of public health at the University of California-Berkeley (Walker, Orange County Register, 5/20).
California’s 2006 teen birth rate still is below the national average of 41.9 births per 1,000 teens and is significantly lower than the state’s peak of 70.9 births per 1,000 teens in 1991. However, births to teenage parents are “placing a significant burden” on state taxpayers, the Chronicle reports. To calculate the annual costs to taxpayers, Constantine used a model that analyzed factors — including loss of tax revenue based on the teenage parents’ reduced income, costs for increased placement in foster care, and increased reliance on public assistance, such as welfare and the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. The model also included loss of income for infants when they reach adulthood. The report found that lost income and private medical expenses resulting from infants born to teens cost their families more than $3,000 annually. In addition, each infant cost state taxpayers about $2,500, the report found.
