Teen childbearing in the United States costs taxpayers more than $9 billion a year, according to a study by Saul Hoffman, chairperson of the Department of Economics and professor of economics and women’s studies.

One reason for conducting the comprehensive study, the first since a 1996 analysis, “was to show that despite how much [has been] accomplished, there are still huge costs that are potentially avoidable,” Hoffman says.

“Teen birth rates in the U.S., despite a decline, are still four to six times the rates in most of Western Europe and twice as high as Canada.”

The study found that teen childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers about $9.1 billion in 2004. It also estimated that cumulative public costs for teen childbearing between 1991 and 2004 totaled $161 billion, despite a one-third decline nationally in the teen birth rate since the early 1990s.

The report, “By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing,” was released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the well-being of children, youth and families by reducing teen pregnancy.

The study tracks the costs associated with health care, foster care, the child welfare system, food stamps, the prison system and lower tax revenue for the government. The most important costs are those associated with the children of teen mothers, who have higher health care costs and lower earnings and are more likely to be in the foster care system and in prison, Hoffman says.

“We have a better handle now on the kinds of programs that can be successful to delay first births,” he says. “What everybody always wants to know is: Are [those programs] worth it? This study tells policymakers what the costs are of those births.”

Hoffman says his analysis provides a “conservative estimate” of the costs of teen childbearing and reflects only those costs clearly associated with a teen birth, rather than other associated risks.

In addition, he says, a state-by-state analysis shows how Delaware lines up statistically. “The other part of this study was to generate separate estimates of the costs to each state, and the cost for Delaware for 2004 is $28 million,” he says.

The study was funded by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation. More information about the findings is available at [www.teenpregnancy.org/costs].

—Becca Hutchinson