The number of births to unmarried women showed significant increases in many west-central Illinois counties from 1999 to 2000 and 2009 to 2010.
According to the Kids Count data released by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, an organization that works to bring childhood issues to public view, a majority of counties have seen an increase in the number of children born to unmarried women.
Anna Rowan, the Kids Count manager at The Annie E. Casey Foundation, said the increases show that more unmarried women are giving birth to children, although she said that doesn’t necessarily mean they are all single women.
“This gets into different dynamics,” Rowan said. “It could be single mothers, sometimes it’s a couple recently divorced, a couple that isn’t married, a situation where the father is incarcerated. It could be any number of situations. We have seen a trend of more unmarried couples.”
In 1999 to 2000 many counties were under 40 percent, but Cass, Greene, Macoupin, Morgan and Pike counties were all above 40 percent by 2009-2010.
In Cass County, 48.7 percent of births were to unmarried women, up from 39.3 percent.
Morgan County also saw a large increase — nearly 13 percent — to 48 percent.
Illinois’ state average also increased. In 1999 to 2010, the percentage of births was about 34 percent but increased to 40.7 percent by 2009 to 2010.
In 2009-2010, Greene County saw about 43 percent of its births to unmarried women.
Both Macoupin and Pike counties had just over 41.5 percent of its births to unmarried women.
No data was available for Scott, Schuyler and Brown counties.
Rowan said while the numbers incorporate a variety of different situations, it is still something that organizations and government officials need to look at when creating programs or legislation, especially for those single mothers, or parents.
“We need to make sure that we are helping single moms, getting them access to child care and sick leave or daycare programs,” Rowan said. “We can look at health care for women to make sure they are getting care while pregnant and after and programs of single parents in general.”
(Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune/TNS)