WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mississippi has claimed the distinction of having the highest teen birth rate in the United States, a figure more than three times higher than the states with the lowest rates, health officials said on Wednesday.

Mississippi, a comparatively poor state in the South, had a rate of 68.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 in 2006, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report. That marked a 13 percent increase over 2005.

Mississippi often performs badly in health rankings. For example, 33 percent of its population is obese, the highest in in the nation.

New Mexico (a rate of 64.1 per 1,000) and Texas (63.1) were next on the list, according to the CDC. Those two states had been tied for the highest in the nation the previous year.

Teen birth rates were highest in the South and Southwest and lowest in the Northeast, the CDC said. The lowest rates were recorded in New Hampshire (18.7), Vermont (20.8) and Massachusetts (21.3), according to the report.