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Statistics and Trends

Find Out About The Recent Increases in Illegitimacy

Find Out About The Recent Increases in Illegitimacy

While the percentage of legitimacy in children has varied throughout the years, recent years have shown a steady increase in the number of unwed mothers in the United States.
While reasons vary for the illegitimacy of the children they are having, it is evident that despite the many birth control options available, women are more likely now to have a child without a husband. Some of these illegitimate pregnancies are planned and some are not, but unwed mothers gave birth to 40 percent of the babies delivered in the United States in 2007.
Statistics show that many couples are waiting longer to get married or skipping marriage all together. Women also have increased financial independence, making them more able to afford a child on their own than ever before in the past. Fewer women give any thought to the legitimacy of their child as they become older and decide they want children, whether the woman is married or not.
Illegitimacy numbers increased dramatically between 2002 and 2007. In 2002, roughly 1.4 million babies were born to unwed mothers. In 2007, that number jumped to 1.7 million. By 2012, that number is expected to exceed 2.4 million.
While all races have seen a jump in the number of women who have children outside of marriage, certain ethnic groups have seen a larger increase of births outside of wedlock than others. Hispanic and black women have had the most dramatic rise in numbers.
Legitimacy decreased the most among births by Hispanic women. Out of every one thousand Hispanic births, 100 were illegitimate. Black women accounted for about 70 illegitimate births out of every 1000 births. Roughly 30 out of every 1000 births by white women were illegitimate.
While many unwed mothers live with boyfriends or the child’s father instead of marrying him, there are many that are single mothers. Legitimacy factor aside, the 2000 Census reported that there are at least ten million single mothers in the United States.
Whether this is a result of divorce or from never marrying cannot be determined from the Census data. Although a stereotype, it is true that many unwed mothers’ pregnancies, nearly 80 percent, were unplanned.

Knowing The Legitimacy Stigma

Knowing The Legitimacy Stigma

The social stigma surrounding unwed mothers and their
illegitimate babies was widespread in the past. A social stigma also followed the illegitimate children, even
though their illegitimacy was through no fault of their own. Since there was no
child family law to help these illegitimate children in any way, they were at a
greater risk for health problems.

 

Unwed
mothers often lived in poverty due to the lack of a breadwinner in the home.
The jobs that were available to them left them with limited time to spend with
their children. 

 

Some of these issues are still prevalent today. Unwed
mothers are still more likely than others to live in poverty
, and the amount of time they must spend working to
support their children leave
s them with
a limited amount of time to spend with them.


Due to the explosion of babies born to unwed mothers, the prejudice that they
have face
d has been disintegrating for the past three
decades. Family law courts handle millions of cases involving unwed mothers and
child family law now has the power to protect both children born to unwed
parents or into wedlock.

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