Teenage birth rates are much higher in more religious states than in others. This is probably due to the fact that contraceptives are strongly discouraged, as per a new study in the U.S.

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on teen birth rates was compared with Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscapes Survey.

"Scripture should be taken literally, word for word" – the average of the number of people believing in this conservative outlook determined the level of a state's religious belief.

Study author Joseph Strayhorn, an adjunct faculty member with Drexel University and the University of Pittsburgh said, "The magnitude of the correlation between religiosity and teen birth rate astonished us. Teen birth is more highly correlated with some of the religiosity items on the Religious Landscapes Survey than some of those items are correlated with each other".

He further explained that the religious communities in U.S. are more successful in making an impact with the disapproval of the use of contraception among teenagers than in discouraging sexual intercourse itself.