Percentage of All Live Births by Caesarean Delivery.

Preliminary data for 2005 indicate that 30.2% of all live births in the United States were caesarean deliveries, marking the highest U.S. total cesarean rate ever reported.

Since 1996, the total caesarean rate has increased by 46%, driven by both an increase in the percentage of all women having a first caesarean and a decline in the percentage of women delivering vaginally after a previous caesarean.

Caesarean rates vary considerably among states but tend to be lower in the western mountain states and upper Midwest region and higher in the Southeast and East regions.

SOURCE: National Vital Statistics System, unpublished data. Additional information is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm. [20April07, QuickStats, MMWR Weekly,  56(15);373, National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2005, CDC]