Teenage Pregnancy - Facts and Figures

 Information obtained from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8531227.stm

• A total of 41,325 women under 18 fell pregnant in 2008, down 3.9% from 42,988 in 2007
• Of these young women 49% had an abortion, compared with 50% in 2007.
• The ONS data shows for every 1,000 girls aged between 15 and 17 in England and Wales; there were just over 40 pregnancies.
• The North East had the highest under-18 conception rate in 2008; with 49 per 1,000 women age 15-17 falling pregnant.
• The East of England had the lowest rate with 31.4 per 1,000 young women getting pregnant.
• The number of girls aged 13 to 15 getting pregnant fell by 6% in 2008, with 7.8 conceptions per 1,000 girls compared with 8.3 in 2007.
• Since 2002 the number of teenage girls falling pregnant in England and Wales has been steadily falling, despite a slight rise in 2007.
• The ONS statistics show there were an estimated 887,800 conceptions among women of all age groups in England and Wales in 2008, a decrease of 0.9% on the 2007 figure of 895,900.
• 41,325 girls under 18 in England and Wales fell pregnant in 2008, a drop of 13%, but the government target was 50%

o        Ministers committed to halve pregnancies among 15-to-17-year olds in England from the 1998 rate of 46.6 conceptions per 1,000 girls.

o        Just under half of pregnancies among 15-to-18 year-olds led to an abortion.

o        "It was a really ambitious target - it was a 50% fall. I think it was right to set an ambitious target and it is going to be really hard to make that amount of fall." Ed Balls.