The 2021 Birth Record data is now available in Build Your Own Report! The Birth Record data is composed of variables extracted from birth certificates of live births as captured by the Hawai‘i State Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring (OHSM). It provides information about the birth, the infant and the parents. As part of this update, HHDW has reloaded the 2020 population estimates and loaded the new 2021 estimates, which are now based on the 2020 Census. While this will not impact the 2021 data, please note that birth rates may differ slightly for 2020, now that the population estimates have been updated.
Below are some highlights:
- There were 15,637 births in 2021, the fewest number of births in the past 20 years and a decrease of 170 births compared to 2020. The crude birth rate was 10.8 per 1000 persons in 2021 which is unchanged from 2020.
- 8.8% of babies born to Hawai‘i residents had a low birth weight (less than 2500 grams), and rates were highest among mothers who are Filipino (12.0%) or ages 40-44 (14.1%).
- The teen birth rate continues to decline from 28.1 per 1000 girls ages 15-19 in 2012 to 12.3 per 1000 in 2021. However, disparities exist by county (from 11.1 per 1000 in Honolulu to 16.0 in Hawai‘i) and race/ethnicity with 43.1 births per 1000 among Other Pacific Islander teens and 20.7 among Native Hawaiians compared to 2.1 and 6.3 among Japanese and Chinese teens, respectively.
- In 2021, 11.3% of births received late (3rd trimester) or no prenatal care. Late or no prenatal care varied significantly by county (from 5.3% in Maui and 5.7% in Kauai to 10.4% in Hawai‘i and 12.6% in Honolulu) and race/ethnicity (from 5.9% among Whites to 26.3% among Other Pacific Islanders). Late or no prenatal care was associated with very low and low birth weight infants (28.4% and 21.5%, respectively).
- Fertility rate remained relatively constant for all DOH race/ethnicities from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, the average fertility rate for all race/ethnicities was 58.5 per 1000, compared to 71.1 per 1000 in 2012.
To learn how to build your own report using the 2021 Birth Record Data, register here to attend our 30-minute Coffee Break webinar on at our March 7th at 11 am.
