Babies born out of wedlock low in Eastern Idaho

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Story Published: Feb 5, 2010 at 5:56 PM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 5, 2010 at 7:15 PM MDT

By Steven Pope

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MADISON COUNTY - Madison County has the lowest percentage in Idaho of babies being born out of wedlock at 4.1%.

National avg of babies born out of wedlock: 40%

Idaho Counties:
Madison County 4.1%
Fremont 18.1%
Jefferson 13.4%
Bingham 26.3%
Bonneville 22.2%

Numbers are based on the Health Department 2007 report.

Counties surrounding Madison have considerably higher rates, but are still well under the national average.

But why is Madison County so much lower?

"Traditionally LDS families have more kids than probably the other populations proportionally. All of those kids are born with parents that are married," said Margie Harris with the Rexburg Family Crisis Center.

3800 students who attend BYU-Idaho are married, that's nearly 1 in 3 students.

"I've just noticed in classes, the first thing people do is look for wedding rings," said Courtney Coon, a student at BYU-Idaho.

"Sometimes with my classmates I kind of look around to see who has a ring on their finger, just cause I'm curious to see who is married or not," said Jason McBride.

First comes marriage, then comes kids.

"Almost our entire complex has kids, our entire ward is loud," laughed Melody McBride.

The sheer amount of babies being born each year in Madison County, about 1000, is forcing the hospital to expand it's maternity ward.

Another interesting statistic is the marriage to divorce ratio.

For every 4 marriages in Madison County, there were 3 divorces in 2007.

Health District 7 as a whole has a 3 to 2 ratio of marriages to divorces.

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