Out-of-wedlock births comprised nearly 44 percent of all births in Kenosha County in 2008 — a number that has increase each year for more than a decade now, according to the latest state figures.

Last year, of the 2,306 babies born in the county, 1,007 were born to unmarried women, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health. In 2007, 2,142 babies were born in the county, 879 to unmarried women.

In 1997, less than 33 percent of all births in the county were to unmarried women.

Gary Brown, executive director of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc., said while the overall number of births continues to drop statewide, in the county it continues to grow. Out-of-wedlock births are driving the increase in births, according to the data.

“I’d say that the out-of-wedlock births are (showing) a significant increase,” said Brown who compiles and monitors local data. “In the state, we see more women who are not having babies. The question is, then, why do we see a big jump in the birth rate here?”

Fewer marriages

Brown noted that in 2008, fewer couples were married — 727, compared with 833 in 2007.

While babies born to two-parent households is still the norm, the number continues to decline.

“The decision to have a baby without being married obviously has a big impact on the births in Kenosha County. You see the whole family structure being realigned with these changes,” Brown said.

“I don’t know if we can generalize and say, ‘This is terrible,’ because if you’re in a marriage or a relationship that isn’t healthy then how good is that going to be for the child?”

The state report does not include whether the unmarried mothers were living with a partner at the time of birth.

Racial analysis

In Kenosha County, white births have comprised 74.3 percent of all births in the last 12 years; 14.1 percent have been Hispanic births, and 9.3 percent have been African-American births, according to data compiled by Brown.

The percentage of unmarried Hispanic women having babies has grown sharply in the last 12 years.

In 1997, less than 42 percent of Hispanic births were to unmarried women. By 2007, the latest data available broken down by ethnicity and ethnicity, that percentage had increased to 57 percent.

Births to unmarried white women has grown slightly, from 24.7 percent in 1997 to 30 percent in 2007.

Percentage of births to unmarried black women has also grown slightly, from 75.8 to 79.3 percent, for the same span of time.

The number of teen births and the number of births to unmarried women over the age 40, however, have decreased, slowing what had appeared to be a marked jump.

In 2008, 74 babies were born to girls under the age of 18 compared with 82 in 2007. In prior years, teen births had appeared to stabilize, with number of babies born in the mid-50s.

For unmarried women age 40 and older, the number of babies born decreased from 12 to 6.