ATLANTA (AP) - Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new federal report says.

Mississippi's rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to new state statistics released Wednesday by 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.

Experts note that the three states have large proportions of black and Hispanic teenagers, groups that traditionally have higher birth rates.

The lowest teen birth rates continue to be in New England, where three states have rates at roughly half the national average, which is 42 births per 1,000 teen women.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

For a closer look at the CDC Report click here.