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Sexual Health
Teenage Pregnancy
On this page
Introduction
Teenage pregnancy targets
Teenage pregnancy - key points
Detailed Findings
Excel tables and charts
Introduction
A number of teenage girls experience unintended or unwanted pregnancies, although for some young people this is a positive life decision. With a higher rate of teenage pregnancy than most other western European countries, reducing unintended teenage pregnancy is a national target for the Scottish Government. Teenage pregnancy is also linked to deprivation with the rates of teenage pregnancy in deprived areas more that treble those of the least deprived areas.
The national target for teenage pregnancy reduction is:
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Reduce by 20% the pregnancy rate (per 1000 population) in under 16 year olds from 8.5 in 1995 to 6.8 in 2010.
These webpages present data on teenage pregnancies, with the most recent information representing conceptions in 2007.
The main tables and charts show the number and rate of pregnancies in women under the age of twenty, based on data derived from birth and stillbirth registrations, and from the notifications of therapeutic abortions.
Teenage pregnancy - key points
- The teenage pregnancy rate is counted as the number of deliveries combined with the number of abortions. It does not include miscarriages. Available information is used to estimate the woman's age at the likely time of conception.
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The teenage pregnancy rate has been fairly steady for the past decade. In 2007, in the under 16 age group there were 8.1pregnancies per 1,000, the same rate as 2006. The rates in the older age groups have risen slightly with the under 18s rising from 41.5 per 1,000 in 2006 to 42.4 per 1,000 in 2007 and the under 20s from 57.9 per 1,000 to 58.6 per 1,000.
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In mainland NHS boards in 2007, NHS Highland recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy in the under 16 age group (5.8 per 1,000) and Borders recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 18 age group (26.7 per 1,000) and also in the under 20 age group (45.2 per 1,000).
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NHS Tayside has the highest teenage pregnancy rates across all three age groups with a rate of 12.1 per 1,000 for the under 16s, 55.3 per 1,000 for under 18s and 74.9 per 1,000 for the under 20s.
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There has been a change in the balance between teenage conceptions which are aborted and those which continue to delivery. In the under 18 and under 20 age groups the rate of abortion has risen slightly but still remains considerably lower than the delivery rate. In the under 16 year age group the abortion rate is now higher than the delivery rate.
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There is a strong deprivation gradient. In the under 20s, the most deprived groups have approximately ten times the rate of delivery as the least deprived (70.4 per 1,000 and 8.3 per 1,000) and nearly twice the rate of abortion (31.0 per 1,000 and 17.3 per 1,000) These proportions have not varied much over the most recently available eight years, and do not vary much with age.
Teenage Pregnancy in
The teenage pregnancy rate has been fairly steady for the past decade. In 2007, in the under 16 age group there were 8.1pregnancies per 1,000, the same rate as 2006. The rates in the older age groups have risen slightly with the under 18s rising from 41.5 per 1,000 in 2006 to 42.4 per 1,000 in 2007 and the under 20s from 57.9 per 1,000 to 58.6 per 1,000.
In mainland NHS boards in 2007, NHS Highland recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy in the under 16 age group (5.8 per 1,000) and Borders recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 18 age group (26.7 per 1,000) and also in the under 20 age group (45.2 per 1,000).
NHS Tayside has the highest teenage pregnancy rates across across all three age groups with a rate of 12.1 per 1,000 for the under 16s, 55.3 per 1,000 for under 18s and 74.9 per 1,000 for the under 20s.
In mainland council areas, for the three year period 2005/07, Argyll and Bute recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy (3.0 per 1,000) in the under 16 group and East Renfrewshire Council in under 18 year olds (20.1 per 1,000). Dundee City Council had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in both these age groups, 18.6 per 1,000 in the under 16 age group and 77.7 per 1,000 in under 18s. In 2007, the lowest and highest rates in the under 20 age group in mainland council areas are 29.8 per 1,000 in
Over the years there has been a change in the balance between teenage conceptions which are aborted and those which continue to delivery. In the under 18 and under 20 age groups the rate of abortion has risen slightly but still remains considerably lower than the delivery rate. In the under 16 year age group the abortion rate has been higher than the delivery rate since 2001.
In 2007, in mainland NHS board areas, the delivery rate in the under 20 age group was highest in Tayside and lowest in Grampian NHS board areas (42.2 and 26.2 per 1,000, respectively). The abortion rate was highest in Tayside and lowest in the Borders NHS board areas (32.7 and 18.2 per 1,000, respectively).
There is a strong deprivation gradient. In the under 20s, the most deprived groups have approximately ten times the rate of delivery as the least deprived (70.4 per 1,000 and 8.3 per 1,000) and nearly twice the rate of abortion (31.0 per 1,000 and 17.3 per 1,000) These proportions have not varied much over the most recently available eight years, and do not vary much with age.
In the most deprived areas in 2007 the rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 16 age group was more than 4 times the rate in the least deprived areas (15.0 per 1,000 and 3.2 per 1,000 respectively). A similar pattern was also present in the under 18 age group, with 80.3 per 1,000 in the most deprived group and 18.7 per 1,000 in the least deprived. Within the under 20 age group the rates were 101.4 within the most deprived groups and 25.6 per 1,000 within the least deprived.
Tables
Table 1 - by age of mother at conception: 1994 - 2007.
Table 2 - by NHS Board area of residence, age of mother at conception: 1994 - 2007.
Table 3 - by council area of residence: 1994 - 2007.
Table 4 - by age of mother at conception and outcome: 1994 - 2007.
Table 5 - by NHS Board of residence, age of mother at conception and outcome: 1994 - 2007.
Table 6 - by deprivation quintile, age of mother at conception and outcome: 2000 - 2007.
Table 7 - by NHS Board of residence, deprivation quintile and age of mother at conception: 2000 - 2007.
Chart 1 - by age group at conception: 1994 - 2007.
Chart 2 - Outcome by age group at conception: 1994 - 2007.
Chart 3 - by NHS Board area of residence: 2007.
Chart 4 - by deprivation quintile and outcome: 2007.
Chart 5 - Scotland compared to Engalnd and Wales: 1994 - 2007.
NSS.isdmaternity@nhs.net
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