In my search to update various statistics in the book, I came across the following in the Department of Education website. I very much doubt that anything the Department of Education has done or will do will have any effect on the teenage pregnancy rate. What is more likely is that the benefits, referred to below, are a key influence.
In the 1970s, Britain had similar teenage pregnancy rates to the rest of Europe. But while other countries got theirs down in the 1980s and 1990s, Britain’s rate stayed high. The latest available figures show that Britain’s teenage birth rate is five times that in Holland, three times higher than in France and double the rate in Germany. Other English-speaking countries such as Canada and New Zealand have teenage birth rates higher than ours. In the United States the rate is more than double that in the UK.In 1999 the Government published a Teenage Pregnancy Report from its Social Exclusion Unit. It acknowledged there was no single cause, but pointed out three major factors: first, that many young people think they will end up on benefit anyway so they see no reason not to get pregnant. Second, that teenagers don’t know enough about contraception and about what becoming a parent will involve. Third, that young people are bombarded with sexual images in the media but feel they can’t talk about sex to their parents and teachers.
The Social Exclusion Unit’s report set out a Teenage Pregnancy Strategy to try and tackle the problem. The aim is to cut pregnancy rates among 15–17-year-olds in England by half between 1998 and 2010. A midway goal for 2004 was also set to get rates down by 15%.Current statistics
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics came out on 26 May 2005, published in Health Statistics Quarterly. They show that the pregnancy rate for under-18s in England and Wales fell to 42.3 conceptions per 1,000 girls in 2003, down from 42.8 in 2002 and about 10% lower than in 1998. But for 13–15-year-olds, the rate went up between 2002 and 2003, from 7.9 to 8.0 conceptions per thousand.
The full article should be here.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Parenting
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Are these statistics available by race or IQ level? That might be illuminating.
Posted by: Robert Speirs at November 28, 2005 09:00 PM
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Those changes in the latest statistics are both so small that they don't sound as if they're out of the margin of error to me.
Posted by: Tory Convert at November 24, 2005 06:29 PM