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Alabama

The state of Alabama closely resembles the general U.S. population in some statistical indices of motherhood, but varies widely in others. For example, 49.7 percent of all Alabama households were married-couple families, and 39.6 percent of those families had children of their own under 18 years; the comparable figures for all households in the United States were 49.8 percent and 43.5 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) for 2005 through 2007. In Alabama, 14.5 percent of all households were headed by women with no husband present, and 57.8 percent of those households had children under 18. In the United States, those figures were 12.5 and 59.6 percent, respectively. The average family size in Alabama was 3.04 persons, just slightly lower than the national average of 3.19.

Although the rates of both marriage and divorce in Alabama have been steadily declining since the mid-1990s, women are more likely to be wed and divorced than their counterparts elsewhere in the country. In Alabama there were 8.6 marriages and 4.8 divorces per 1,000 persons in 2006, compared with national marriage and divorce rates of 7.5 and 3.6 per 1,000 persons, according to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.

Fertility and Teen Mothers

The ACS shows some similarities, but also significant differences, in fertility statistics between Alabama and the rest of the nation. In the case of women aged 15 to 50, the numbers are identical: 55 per 1,000 women gave birth during a 12-month period, both in Alabama and the United States at large. However, in the case of teenage births, the rate in Alabama was significantly higher: 37 per 1,000 women, compared with 27 per 1,000 women in the United States. The higher birth rate among teenagers might also account for the lower rate of abortions in Alabama: 10.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2005, compared to a national average of 19.4.

Most studies indicate that children born to teenage mothers have lower educational achievements. According to the ACS, the percentage of persons over the age of 25 who did not have a high school diploma was 20 percent in Alabama, higher than the U.S. figure of 16 percent. Poverty also affected educational attainment; according to the ACS, 20.3 percent of all Alabama families with related children under 18 had incomes below the poverty level, compared to 15.1 percent in the United States at large. Among Alabama families with related children under 18 and no husband present, 47.3 percent were below the poverty level, significantly higher than the figure of 36.9 percent for all such families in the United States.

As a result, Alabama has a higher percentage of families receiving public assistance than the national average. For instance, 5.6 percent of all Alabama households received Supplemental Security Income and 10.2 percent received food stamp benefits, according to the ACS. The comparable figures in the United States at large were 4 and 7.9 percent. On the other hand, fewer children in Alabama received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in 2006 than the national average: 2.8 percent of all children in Alabama, compared to 3.9 percent of all children nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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