The birth rate among U.S teenage girls has declined since 1990’s but still remains higher than other developed nations, says a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than half of girls (57 percent) in the age group 15-19 said that they never had sex.

Birth control has become popular among teenage girls with nearly 60 percent teenagers reporting that they used contraceptive devices like IUD or hormonal methods. Use of contraceptive methods varied among ethnic groups. Whites (65.7 percent) were more likely to use efficient birth control methods than either blacks (46.5 percent) or Hispanics (53.7 percent).

The data for the report was obtained from three survey cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG): 1995, 2002, and 2006–2010. Some 2500 girls participated in this national survey.

"Many teens still believe most of their peers are having sex, even though the data show that the majority aren't. That is why it is so important to get the message out that the majority of teens are not having sex,” said epidemiologist Crystal Pirtle Tyler.

The report says that there is a 44 percent decline in birth-rates among teenagers in 2010 when compared to 1990. In 2010 the number of babies born to teenage mothers was approximately 368,000.

Teenage girls giving birth has declined sharply since 1950’s when about 96 births were recorded in every 1,000 girls aged 15-17.

The Teenage Births in Rich Nation report that came out in 2001 had said that, the birth rates among young girls in U.S with 50 births per 1,000 teenage girls is significantly higher when compared to countries like Netherlands, Korea, Switzerland Japan and Sweden where birth rates among teenagers is 10 per 1,000. U.K reported more births among teenage girls than any European country but was still less than half of the number in United States.

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