Teen birth rate hits another record low

The teen birth rate in the U.S. fell to another record low in 2015, according to new government data.

The birth rate among women ages 15 to 19 dropped 8 percent over the last year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Thursday.

{mosads}Teen pregnancies have been markedly declining for decades — plummeting by nearly 64 percent since the peak in 1991.

Women’s health advocates, like Planned Parenthood, have attributed that drop to expanded access to birth control. The number of abortions has also reached a record low nationally.

The U.S. rate is still higher than nearly all other developed nations, according to a recent study by the Guttmacher Institute. Countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands have the lowest teen birth rates.

The overall birth rate in the U.S. remained about flat compared to the previous year. There were 3.97 million births in 2015, compared to 3.98 million in 2014.

The slight dip comes after the number of total births actually increased from 2013 to 2014, the first increase since 2007.