US Counties With the Lowest Share of Births to Unmarried Women
1,621 US counties ranked by share of births to unmarried women, from lowest to highest. First are Candler County, GA (0%), Jasper County, GA (0%) and Jeff Davis County, GA (0%). The middle one of the 1,621 has 35.8%.
What this measures
Of women who gave birth in the past year, the percentage who were not married: never married, widowed or divorced. A separated woman counts as married. The middle county is 31.8%. It is a share of women who gave birth, not of all women, so it says nothing about how many births there were. Source: Census ACS 5-year.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utah | 14.1% |
| 2 | Idaho | 20% |
| 3 | Colorado | 21.8% |
| 4 | North Dakota | 23.1% |
| 5 | Washington | 23.4% |
| 6 | Wyoming | 23.4% |
| 7 | Minnesota | 23.9% |
| 8 | Oregon | 24.4% |
| 9 | New Hampshire | 24.6% |
| 10 | Vermont | 25.6% |
| 11 | New Jersey | 25.6% |
| 12 | Montana | 26% |
| 13 | South Dakota | 26.2% |
| 14 | Alaska | 26.4% |
| 15 | Iowa | 26.6% |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 26.7% |
| 17 | Massachusetts | 26.8% |
| 18 | Connecticut | 27.8% |
| 19 | Virginia | 27.8% |
| 20 | New York | 28.6% |
| 21 | Hawaii | 28.7% |
| 22 | Kansas | 28.7% |
| 23 | Maine | 29.1% |
| 24 | Nebraska | 29.4% |
| 25 | Missouri | 29.5% |
| 26 | California | 30.1% |
| 27 | Oklahoma | 31.4% |
| 28 | Maryland | 31.5% |
| 29 | Illinois | 31.6% |
| 30 | Pennsylvania | 31.6% |
| 31 | Texas | 31.8% |
| 32 | Tennessee | 32.4% |
| 33 | Rhode Island | 33% |
| 34 | North Carolina | 33.5% |
| 35 | Kentucky | 33.7% |
| 36 | Indiana | 33.9% |
| 37 | Michigan | 34.1% |
| 38 | Arizona | 35% |
| 39 | Georgia | 35.3% |
| 40 | Delaware | 35.5% |
| 41 | Nevada | 35.8% |
| 42 | Arkansas | 36.4% |
| 43 | Ohio | 36.6% |
| 44 | Florida | 36.8% |
| 45 | West Virginia | 37.8% |
| 46 | Alabama | 38.3% |
| 47 | South Carolina | 38.6% |
| 48 | District of Columbia | 41.4% |
| 49 | New Mexico | 43.2% |
| 50 | Mississippi | 45.5% |
| 51 | Louisiana | 46.3% |
| 52 | Puerto Rico | 61.1% |
More on share of births to unmarried women
- US Counties With the Highest Share of Births to Unmarried Women
- Share of births to unmarried women by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.