Adolescent pregnancy.(Statistical Data Included)

Most sexually experienced teenagers try to prevent pregnancy, and most young contraceptive users succeed in doing so. Nevertheless, 1 million adolescent women--12% of all women aged 15-19 and 21% of those who have had sexual intercourse--become pregnant every year. (150)

Pregnancy Rates: Up or Down?

Over the last two decades, adolescent pregnancy rates have gone both up and down, depending on how they are calculated (Figure 30, page 41). Reflecting the dramatic rise in the proportion of adolescent women who have had sexual intercourse during this period, the rate among all teenage women aged 15-19 increased 23% between 1972 and 1990, and is now at its highest level in nearly 20 years. (151)

Pregnancy rates among all adolescent women, however, do not present an accurate picture of pregnancy levels among teenagers, because some adolescents are not sexually experienced and therefore are not exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The more important trend, therefore, is the pregnancy rate among sexually experienced teenagers. That rate has declined 19% among 15-19-year-olds in the last two decades (152)--an encouraging indication that sexually experienced adolescents are using contraceptives more effectively than did their counterparts in the past.

Age and Race as Factors

Nearly two-thirds of teenage pregnancies occur among 18-19-year-old women. (153) The proportion of sexually experienced teenagers who become pregnant increases with age, because as they get older, adolescents generally have intercourse more frequently and are more likely to be fertile and to want to get pregnant (154) (Figure 31, page 42).

* Among sexually experienced teenagers, about 9% of 14-year-olds, 18% of 15-17-year-olds and 22% of 18-19-year-olds become pregnant each year.