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Highlights

• In 2002, 84,839 infants were born to Indiana residents. The number of births represents a decrease from 2001 (86,122).  This is the second year in a row that births have declined in the state.  For details, see Table 1.
  
  
• Of the 84,839 infants of Indiana residents in 2002, 81,891 were single births, 2,750 were twins, 170 were triplets, 20 were quadruplets, and 5 were quintuplets. (NOTE: See definition of "multiple births" in the glossary).
  
  
• During 2002, 43,237 (51.0%) of the infants were male and 41,599 (49.0%) were female, resulting in a sex ratio of 1,039 males per every 1,000 females.   For details, see Table 1.
  
  
• In 2002, there were 9,701 live births to mothers under 20 years of age – 11.4% of the total number of live births. Of these, 7,773 were born to white women under age 20 (10.5% of the white births) and 1,842 were born to black women under age 20 (19.9% of the black births).   For details, see Table 2.
  
  
• For a large majority of births, both the mother and the father were white (76.3%). Both the mother and father were black for 6.3% of births. For 12.9% of births, the race of the father was not reported.   For details, see Table 10.
  
  
• The age-specific birth rate for women age 15-19 was lower in 2002 (44.5) than in 2001 (45.7)   For details, see Table 13.   For by county details, see Table 30.
  
  
• The 2002 general fertility rate (GFR) was 64.6 births per 1,000 women age 15-44 years old compared to a 2001 GFR of 65.0 per 1,000 women 15-44 years old.   For details, see Table 13.   For by county details, see Table 31.
  
  
• In 2002, the total fertility rate (TFR) was 2,009 for all races combined. This rate is 4.3% below the theoretical replacement level rate of 2,100. The TFRs for white and black women were 2,011 and 2,243 respectively.   For details, see Table 13.
  
  
• The proportion of live-born infants classified as low birth weight (LBW; less than 2,500 grams or 5 lb. 8 oz) increased from 6.7% in 1992 to 7.6% in 2002. Infants born to black mothers were almost twice as likely to be LBW (12.9%) as infants born to white mothers (6.9%).   For details, see Table 6 and Table 14.
  
  
• Approximately 1.4% of all live-born infants were classified as very low birth weight (VLBW; less than 1,500 grams or 3 lb. 5 oz). Infants born to black mothers were more than twice as likely to weigh less than 1,500 grams (2.6%) than were infants born to white mothers (1.2%).   For details, see Table 15.
  
  
• In Indiana, about one fifth (19.1%) of women who gave birth in 2002 reported smoking during their pregnancy, compared with only 11.4% nationwide in 2002. White mothers (19.9%) were more likely than black mothers (15.2%) to report smoking during pregnancy.   For details, see Table 20 and Table 21.
  
  
• Statewide, 80.5% of mothers began prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy.  White mothers were more likely to have early prenatal care (82.1%) than were black mothers (68.6%).   For details, see Table 24.
  
  
• Slightly over one-third (36.5%) of all live births in Indiana in 2002 were to unmarried parents. Significantly more black mothers (76.5%) than white mothers (31.9%) were not married to the infant’s father at the time of the birth.   For details, see Table 25.

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