STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The teen pregnancy rate in New York City has fallen significantly over the past decade, but certain neighborhoods are still seeing more than 5% of their total births occur among teenage mothers, new data shows.
Last week, the city Health Department released its Annual Summary of Vital Statistics for 2023, providing an in-depth look at various key health metrics across the city, including teenage pregnancy.
From 2021 through 2023, roughly 2.1% of all births in New York City were to teen mothers, representing a significant decrease from a decade ago.
The Annual Summary of Vital Statistics for 2013 shows that from 2011 through 2013, the teen pregnancy rate was more than twice as high, with 4.7% of all births occurring among teenage mothers.
Despite the significant decline in the percentage of births to teen mothers, further analysis shows that some parts of the city still have rates that exceed the 2011 through 2013 citywide average.
The report breaks down the data by community districts, which at times encompass various neighborhoods. As a result, data is available for Staten Island’s North Shore, South Shore and Mid-Island, but not on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.
The highest rates were in two Brooklyn community districts, Bushwick and Brownsville, both of which saw 5.6% of their births to teen mothers from 2021 through 2023.
Three other community districts, all located in the Bronx, also saw rates above the 2011-2013 citywide average.
In Hunts Point, Mott Haven and East Tremont, the rates were 5.5%, 5.1% and 4.9%, respectively.
Here on Staten Island, the North Shore had the highest teen pregnancy rate with 3.4% of all births occurring among teen mothers, followed by Mid-Island at 1.1%.
On the South Shore, just 0.4% of all births were to teen mothers, which was among the lowest rates of any community district across the five boroughs.