40% of All Babies Born in U.S. Last Year Were to Unmarried Mothers

Despite positive recent trends for family stability, including increasing numbers of babies born to college-educated women who are married, the overall proportion of babies born to unwed mothers is not declining, according to a new data analysis.

The report, published Wednesday by Institute for Family Studies (IFS) Senior Fellow Nicholas Zill, pointed out that 40% of all births in the U.S. in 2025 were to unmarried women, amounting to 1,440,031 babies. While the proportion of unmarried births has not increased compared to previous years, it still remains concerningly high. Last year’s total “compares with 40% in 2022 and in 2023; 33% in 2000; and 32% in 1995,” Zill noted.

Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Social science data has overwhelmingly confirmed that children born to their married parents have significantly better outcomes than children born to single mothers. One recent survey of available data found that children born to married parents “are significantly more likely to be ‘on track’ at every life stage than children who are born to unmarried parents.” Children who are “on track” as defined by the Social Genome Model are those who achieve age-appropriate benchmarks for every stage in life. For example, an “on track” child at the end of elementary school “has mastered basic math and reading skills, has acquired the behavioral competencies that are predictive of later success, has a strong relationship with his or her parent(s), and is in good health.”

IFS researchers found that individuals with married parents were significantly more “on track” at every stage of life than those with unmarried parents, including pre-K (69% vs. 51%), elementary (71% vs. 49%), middle childhood (68% vs. 45%), early adolescence (72% vs. 53%), adolescence (64% vs. 48%), transition to adulthood (62% vs. 49%), and adulthood (65% vs. 48%).

Zill further confirmed the importance of married parents for babies, noting that a baby born to an unmarried mother is “Three times more likely to need Medicaid or other government or charitable assistance to pay for his or her delivery (68% versus 23%); Twice as likely to have received late or no prenatal care (11% versus 5%); Twice as likely to be born prematurely (under 20 weeks) (1% versus 0.5%); 1.6 times more likely to be born at a low birthweight (under 2,500 grams) (11% versus 7%); 1.7 times more likely to have been fathered by a man with less than a college education (92% versus 55%); [and] 14 times more likely to have been fathered by a man not identified on the birth certificate (29% versus 2%).”

A host of other ills present themselves when a father is not involved in raising a child, data shows. One summation highlighted how a father’s absence leads to children reporting “feeling abandoned, struggling with their emotions, and experiencing self-loathing,” having increased behavioral problems, having poor academic performance, as well as drastically higher rates of delinquency, youth crime, promiscuity, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, and homelessness. In addition, fatherless children are “at greater risk of suffering physical, emotional, and sexual abuse” and are “five times more likely to experience physical abuse and emotional maltreatment, with a 100 times higher risk of fatal abuse.”

Despite the plethora of data showing the disadvantages children experience in households with single mothers, Zill observed that current U.S. welfare policies tend to encourage fatherlessness. “It is time for state and national policymakers to recognize that our current welfare arrangements, which pay for prenatal care, delivery and postnatal care are, in effect, subsidizing unmarried childbearing, while allowing the men involved to escape accountability for the children they help bring into the world,” he lamented.

Experts like Kendall Qualls, who is the founder and president of the nonprofit Take Charge, an organization dedicated to building strong families in inner cities, say that in order to encourage more fathers to actively raise their children and marry their mothers, communities and churches must purposefully recognize the value of fatherhood and promote it.

“[W]e need to start recognizing the significance of fathers,” he explained during an “Outstanding” podcast episode last year. “… I can remember growing up when you used to read the paper … where there would be like a ‘Father of the Year’ award or a ‘Father of the Month’ award. You don’t read any of those things anymore. … So our organization now sponsors on Father’s Day for churches [a program that includes] a monetary gift card, a certificate, [and] the book ‘The Man Code: 12 Priorities Every Man Needs to Know’ [by] our pastor Mark Henry. It’s all biblically based. And … then we’ll recognize [you and] put the picture of the fathers in the paper [and] in social media so people know what good looks like.”

Qualls went on to underscore that if communities focus on sound education, it will lead to more responsible fathers.

“[W]e have major academic issues across the board, not just in poor minority communities — the academic standards of what we’re getting [are] much lower. … We have a moral education that’s needed. So when we bring back two-parent intact families with their small kids … to these after-school programs, and we tell these kids, ‘You can have a life like this too. You can have success. Just do this formula. It’s called the success sequence. Graduate from high school, get a job, get married, then have children. Or, if you don’t want to get a job, go to college. But make sure you get married first.’ And the kids are going, ‘Well, why do I have to wait to have kids,’ because no one in their lives and their communities are married, and they have multiple kids, and tragically, by multiple fathers. So we felt, ‘We’ve got to start from ground zero,’ literally. We have to start teaching kids not only academic high standards, a moral education, but also a civic education that they should be privileged to call themselves an American citizen.”

Qualls further emphasized that even within communities where single parenthood is common, the desire for marriage and family stability remains.

“Marriage rates within the black community and Hispanic community lower poverty literally by 80%,” he pointed out. “This is why we’re fighting a battle. Not Republican or Democrat, but good versus evil. Because, you know, you go in the community, they want this. They want to be married. The women want to be married. The men want to be married. They want kids.”

LifeNews Note: Dan Hart writes for the Family Research Council. He is the senior editor of The Washington Stand.