The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $9 billion annually. Thirty-one percent of young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20—about 750,000 a year. Eight in 10 of these pregnancies are unintended and 81 percent are to unmarried teens.

Teen Pregnancy Costs to the State:

Between 1991 and 2004 there have been more than 354,000 teen births inFlorida, costing taxpayers a total of $8.1 billion over this period.5
In 2004 alone, the cost of 23,804 births to teen mothers, age 0–19,on Federal, State and Local Governments, and the taxpayers who supportthem totaled $489,158,0006. Of the total costs, 52% were federal costs, and 48% were state costs.

Teen Pregnancy Costs associated for 0-19 year olds in Florida in selected counties:

• In Alachua County: 290 teen births, estimated cost of $5,959,000
• In Collier County: 490 teen births, estimated cost of $10,069,000
• In Dade County: 3059 teen births, estimated cost of $62,861,000
• In Duval County: 1572 teen births, estimated cost of $32,304,000
• In Hillsborough County: 2078 teen births, estimated cost of $42,702,000
• In Manatee County: 557 teen births, estimated cost of $11,446,000
• In Orange County: 1771 teen births, estimated cost of $36,393,000
• In Polk County: 1225 teen births, estimated cost of $25,173,000

Most of the costs of teen childbearing are associated with the negativeconsequences for the children of teen mothers. n Florida in 2004,annual taxpayer costs associated with children born to teen mothersincluded:

• $96 million for public health care (Medicaid and SCHIP)
• $89 million for child welfare
• $105 million for incarceration
• $145 million in lost tax revenue due to decreased earnings and spending

1 Hoffman, Saul, Ph.D. (2006). By the Numbers: the Public Cost ofTeen Childbearing. Washington, DC: the National Campaign to PreventTeen Pregnancy.
2 National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy analysis of Teen Pregnancy Data. (2006).
3 The Guttmacher Institute. (2006) U.S. Teenage Pregnancy StatisticsNational and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity. New York:The Guttmacher Institute.
4 Henshaw, S.K. (1998). Unintended Pregnancy in the United States.Family Planning Perspectives, 30(1):24-29, 46. Based on data from the1982, 1988, and 1995 cycles of
the National Survey of Family Growth, supplemented by data from other sources.
5 National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy http://www.teenpregnancy.org/costs/pdf/fact_sheet/FL_Final.pdf [1]
6 National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy http://www.teenpregnancy.org/costs/calculator.asp [2]