Teenage Pregnancy

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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.

Teenage pregnancy targets

The national target for teenage pregnancy reduction is:

• 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 2006. 

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
• The teenage pregnancy rate has been fairly steady for the past decade.  In 2006 there were 57.9 pregnancies per 1000 females aged below 20 (denominator is females aged 15-19) and 8.1 pregnancies per 1000 females aged below 16 (denominator is females aged 13-15).
• There have been some changes in the balance between teenage pregnancies which are aborted and pregnancies which are delivered.  Over recent years, there has been a slight rise in the rate of abortions in all the teenage age groups. 
• There is a strong deprivation gradient. The most deprived groups have approximately ten times the rate of delivery as the least deprived, and twice the rate of abortion.  These proportions have not varied much over the most recently available seven years, and do not vary much with age.
• There are considerable variations in teenage pregnancy rates between different geographical areas.  For the NHS Boards, Tayside has a consistently high rate.

 

Detailed Findings

Teenage Pregnancy in Scotland: 1994 to 2006

The teenage pregnancy rate for ages below 20 for the year 2006 is 57.9 per 1,000.  The rate peaked in 1998 with a rate of 58.3 per 1,000 then there was a gradual decline to 54.0 per 1,000 in 2002.  Since then there has been a slight increase to the present rate.

Within the under 18 age group the pregnancy rate has followed a similar pattern as the under 20's. The rate peaked in the 90's with a rate of 44.9 per 1,000 in 1998 then there was a gradual decline to 39.4 per 1,000 in 2001.  Since then there has been a slight increase to the present rate of 41.5 per 1,000.

The rate in the under 16 age group has fluctuated since the early nineties, peaking in 1996 at 9.0 per 1,000.  The lowest rates recorded is 6.6 per 1.000 in 2001. In the more recent years the rate has been around 7.0 per 1,000 with an increase this latest year to 8.1 per 1,000.

In mainland NHS boards in 2006, NHS Highland recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy in the under 16 age group (4.7 per 1,000), Borders recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 18 age group (31.2 per 1,000) and also in  the under 20 age group (44.1 per 1,000).

Ayrshire & Arran recorded the highest rate in the under 16 age group with a rate of 11.9 per 1,000.  NHS Tayside has the highest teenage pregnancy rates across the under 18 and under 20 age groups. These rates are 51.0 per 1,000 for under 18 age group and 68.0 per 1,000 for the under 20 age group.

In mainland council areas for the three year period 2004/06, Argyll and Bute recorded the lowest rate of teenage pregnancy (1.5 per 1,000) in the under 16 group and East Renfrewshire Council in the under 18 year olds (21.1 per 1,000).  Dundee City Council had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in both these age groups, 15.3 per 1,000 in the under 16 age group and 71.1 per 1,000 in the under 18s.  In 2006, the lowest and highest rates in the under 20 age group in mainland council areas are 26.6 per 1,000 in East Renfrewshire and 83.9 in Dundee City Council.

The delivery rate and the rate of abortion among under 16 year olds are similar for all years.  In 2006 the delivery rate was 3.3 per 1,000 and the rate of abortion was 4.8 per 1,000.  In the under 18  and under 20 age groups the rate of abortion is considerably lower than the delivery rate in all years.

In 2006, in mainland NHS board areas, the delivery rate in the under 20 age group was highest in Ayrshire and Arran and lowest in Grampian NHS board areas (44.9 and 28.5 per 1,000, respectively). The abortion rate was highest in Tayside and lowest in the Borders NHS board areas (30.6. and 13.6 per 1,000, respectively).

In the most deprived areas in 2006 the rate of teenage pregnancies in the under 16 age group was more than 4 times the rate in the least deprived areas (15.3  and 3.7 respectively). A similar patern was also present in the under 18 age group with 73.7 per 1,000 in the most deprived group and 17.4 per 1,000 in the least deprived.  Within the under 20 age group the rates were 99.2 within the most deprived groups and 23.7 per 1,000 within the least deprived.

 

Tables

Table 1 - by age of mother at conception: 1994 - 2006.
Table 2 - by NHS Board area of residence, age of mother at conception: 1994 - 2006.
Table 3 - by council area of residence: 1994 - 2006.
Table 4 - by age of mother at conception and outcome: 1994 - 2006.
Table 5 - by NHS Board of residence, age of mother at conception and outcome: 1994 - 2006.
Table 6 - by deprivation quintile, age of mother at conception and outcome: 2000 - 2006.
Table 7 - by NHS Board of residence, deprivation quintile and age of mother at conception: 2000 - 2006.

Charts

Chart 1  - by age group at conception: 1994 - 2006.
Chart 2  - Outcome by age group at conception: 1994 - 2006. 
Chart 3  - by NHS Board area of residence: 2006.
Chart 4  - by deprivation quintile and outcome: 2006.
Chart 5  - Scotland compared to Engalnd and Wales: 1994 - 2006.

 

 

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