• Twenty percent of live births in 1999 were to mothers aged 35 and over.
  
  
• The median age of women who gave birth in 1999 was 30.2.
  
  
• The teen birth rate was 16.0 births per 1,000 females aged 10-19.
  
  
• Forty percent of women giving birth in 1999 were first time mothers.
  
  
• Over 50 percent of black non-Hispanic women, Hispanic women, and women under the age of 25 who gave birth were unmarried.
  
  
• Over 15 percent of teens reported a sexually transmitted disease as a medical risk factor and nine percent reported smoking during pregnancy.
  
  
• Over one-quarter of births were delivered by cesarean section.
  
  
• The percentage of black non-Hispanic newborns of low birth weight was 1.75 times the overall percentage of low birth weight babies.
  
  
• The low birth weight rate among multiple births (twins, triplets, and higher order) was more than nine times the rate for singleton births.
  
  
• Multiple births accounted for 4.2 percent of all births in 1999.

Mortality

• The classification of causes of death changed in 1999, as well as the standard population used for age-adjustment of death rates.
  
  
• The age-adjusted death rate for males was 40 percent higher than for females and the rate for blacks was 31 percent higher than that of whites.
  
  
• The percentage of decedents who were cremated was 48 percent higher in 1999 than a decade earlier.
  
  
• Life expectancy for New Jersey residents born in 1999 was 77.3 years.
  
  
• Heart disease, cancer, and stroke remained the three leading causes of death and accounted for 62 percent of all deaths in 1999.
  
  
• Unintentional injuries were the leading cause of death of persons under age 24.
  
  
• Cancer was the leading cause of death of persons aged 25-64.
  
  
• There were 757 deaths from drug-related causes, 456 from alcohol-related causes, and 366 from firearms in 1999.
  
  
• The infant mortality rate was slightly higher than in the previous year.
  
  
• The black non-Hispanic infant mortality rate was more than three times as high as the rate for white non-Hispanic infants.
  
  
• Infants who were part of a multiple birth, had low birth weight, were premature or whose mothers received no prenatal care, were under 20 years of age, were unmarried, or smoked during pregnancy were more likely to die within the first year of life.
  
  
• Low birth weight was the leading cause of infant deaths.

Marriage and Divorce

• The median ages of brides and grooms marrying in 1999 were up slightly to 29.4 and 31.3, respectively, for all marriages and 27.6 and 29.1, respectively, for first marriages.
  
  
• The percent of brides and grooms under 25 years of age continued to decline.

Communicable Diseases

• The number of AIDS cases diagnosed in 1999 was virtually unchanged from the number in 1998.
  
  
• The highest incidence rates of AIDS were among non-Hispanic black males and females.
  
  
• Reported cases of chlamydia increased from prior years, while reports of syphilis decreased and gonorrhea remained virtually unchanged.
  
  
• The number of reported cases of Lyme disease, salmonella, and giardiasis decreased from the previous year.