The latest data on teen birth rates shows significant increases in 26 states, including Hawai'i, according to a new federal report out yesterday, which suggests that the rise in teens having babies is geographically broad-based and represents most regions of the United States.

"To see 26 states with statistically significant increases is fairly remarkable," said Paul Sutton, a demographer with the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the data. "We're seeing increases in both the number of teens having births and also the rate at which they are having births. Both of them are going up."

The federal data — largely from birth certificates — shows widespread statistically significant increases for 2006, the most recent year for which data are available. In the two previous years — from 2004 to 2005 and 2003 to 2004 — only one state in each year (Tennessee and South Dakota) had a significant increase.

Mississippi had the highest rate. It was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The teen birth rate for that year in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.

In Hawai'i, the rate was 12 percent higher, with 40.5 births per 1,000 teen girls in 2006, up from 36.2 per 1,000 the previous year.

"It's pretty much across the board" nationally, said Brady Hamilton, a CDC statistician who worked on the report.

It's not clear why Mississippi, with 68 births per 1,000, surged into first place. The state's one-year increase of nearly 1,000 teen births could be a statistical blip, said Ron Cossman, a Mississippi State researcher who focuses on children's health statistics.

The New Mexico rate was 64 per 1,000; Texas was 63. New Hampshire, with a rate of 19 per 1,000, had the nation's lowest rate. Vermont, with 20.8 per 1,000, and Massachusetts, with 21.3 per 1,000, were also at the low end. Decreases were noted in New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia.

The national average is 42 births per 1,000 teen girls, an increase of 3 percent.

About 435,000 of the nation's 4.3 million births in 2006 were to mothers ages 15 to 19. That was about 21,000 more teen births than in 2005.

The new information adds to previously released data from the national center, completing the picture for 2006 — a year in which the U.S. fertility rate hit its highest level since 1971.

Observers said they'd have to wait for 2007 data to know if 2006 was merely a blip. But for now, the new state-by-state data give credence to the idea that this marks the reversal of a downward trend, says Kristin Moore, a senior scholar at the nonprofit Child Trends.

"It occurred among teens 15 to 17 and 17 to 19 and among whites, blacks and Hispanics, and ... in most of the states," Moore says. "It appears to be quite a general pattern, which makes me think it might not be a blip but a turn-around."