A stunning new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals a surprising fact about pregnancies in the United States. Nationwide, the teen birth rate plunged 9 percent compared to the previous year, and it set a record low for teens having babies in what appears to be a long-term trend.

The birth rate has dropped 67 percent among teen girls since 1991 based on stats from the National Center for Health Statistics. Total U.S. births in 2016 were 3,941,109, which is a drop of 1 percent comapred to the year before, and the fertility rate of 62 births per 1,000 women was a record low for the United States.

The incredible dive in teen birth rates is what surprised scientists. Authorities believe that access to contraceptives may be leading to these dramatic changes.

“15–19 declined 9% in 2016 to 20.3 births per 1,000 women; rates declined for both younger (aged 15–17) and older (aged 18–19) teenagers,” the CDC report states. “The birth rate declined for women in their early 20s to 73.7 births per 1,000 women aged 20–24 in 2016, and for women in their late 20s to 101.9 births per 1,000 women aged 25–29. The rates for women in their 30s and 40s rose in 2016.

“The nonmarital birth rate declined 3% in 2016, to 42.2 births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15–44. In 2016, 77.2% of women began prenatal care in the first trimester; 6.2% had late (beginning in the third trimester) or no prenatal care. The cesarean delivery rate declined for the fourth year in a row to 31.9%; the low-risk cesarean delivery rate declined again to 25.7% in 2016. The preterm birth rate rose for the second year in a row, to 9.84% in 2016. The low birthweight rate was also up for the second straight year to 8.16%.”