Delaware is the surprise pregnancy capital of America, a new study has found.
Each year, the First State sees some 70 women in every thousand fall unexpectedly pregnant - more than any other state in the US.
It is followed closely by California (66), Mississippi (66) and Louisiana (63), in the most comprehensive study into unplanned pregnancies in the US and their reasons to date.
The survey, by reproductive health think tank The Guttmacher Institute, reveals for the first time the true scale of unexpected births across the US.
Nationally, meanwhile, more than half of all births are unplanned, the study revealed.
The geography of unintended pregnancies: The states with the deepest coloring have the highest rates of unexpected pregnancies
In 2008 alone, 31 states had unintended pregnancy rates over 50 per cent and the remaining states weren't much lower.
Those states had unexpected pregnancy rates of at least 37 per cent.
The research was conducted by the Guttmacher Institute.
'We know that nationally, about half of pregnancies are unintended,' said Lawrence Finer, the institute's Director of Domestic Research.
That was unexpected: Nationally, more than half of pregnancies are surprises
'This report shows that there is wide variation across states. Rates are twice as high in some southern states compared with those in some northeastern states - a variation that likely reflects differences in demographics and socioeconomic conditions across states.'
The state with the highest rate of unintended pregnancies was Delaware with 70 unexpected pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-44 (that's all women, including those who aren't pregnant).
The state with the lowest was New Hampshire with 31 unexpected pregnancies per 1,000.
The report also found that most of the unintended pregnancies were just mistimed, as opposed to unwanted meaning that most women wanted to get pregnant but just not at that time.
Happy mistake: Most unintended pregnancies were mistimed, as opposed to unwanted
Only about one-quarter to one-third of unintended pregnancies were unwanted altogether in each state.
Most of women decided to go through with the pregnancies, with more than half resulting in a birth.
In 2008, only four states had more abortions than births when it came to unintended pregnancies: Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York.
And while the unintended pregnancy rate is already surprising, the instistute believes without planned parenting services, it could be a lot higher.
They have conducted other research which found that publicly-funded family planning services like Planned Parenthood help prevent more than 2.2million unintended pregnancies.
Impacted: Unintended pregnancies are on the rise with poor and low-income women
And unintended pregnancies have a real impact on taxpayers. They estimate that each states pays anywhere from $21million to $1.3bilion each year from unintended pregnancies.
'Investments in publicly funded family planning services that help women avoid unintdended pregnancy have a proven track record,' said the institute's Senior Public Policy Associate Adam Sonfield. 'In absence of the services provded at publicly funded family planning centers, the costs of unintended pregnancy would be 60 per cent higher than they are today.'
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