Teen Pregnancy
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Headline

Pregnancy rates among adolescent females have fallen steadily during the past decade, from 116.3 per 1,000 female teens ages 15 to 19 in 1990 to 84.5 per 1,000 female teens in 2000, the lowest rate reported since 1976. (See Figure 1)

Importance

Teen pregnancy has negative consequences for both the mother and the child.¹ The vast majority of teen pregnancies (78 percent) are unintended.² Data from the mid-1990s indicate that 43 percent of pregnancies to teens aged 15-19 ended in unintended births and another 35 percent ended in abortions.³ These percentages are even higher for younger teens. Mothers who do have a teen birth are more disadvantaged, on average, than are other teens and have children who face negative health, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes.⁴

Trends

In 2000, the teen pregnancy rate reached a new low. Among female teens ages 15 to 19, the rate declined from 116.3 per 1,000 in 1990 to 84.5 in 2000. Teens ages 15 to 17 experienced a decline of more than thirty percent, from 80.3 in 1990 to 53.5 per 1,000 in 2000. The rates for teens 18 to 19 also declined between 1991 (166.5 per 1,000) and 2000 (129.9 per 1,000). (See Figure 1)

Differences by Race and Ethnicity

Although non-Hispanic white teens have lower teen pregnancy rates (56.9 per 1,000 teens ages 15-19 in 2000) than either black non-Hispanic teens (151.0 per 1,000) or Hispanic teens (132.0 per 1,000), each racial/ethnic subgroup experienced declining rates in the 1990s. Non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black teens ages 15 to 19 experienced steady declines between 1990 and 2000. Teenage pregnancy rates for Hispanic teens did not begin declining until 1993. (See Figure 2)

Differences by Age

Older teens have higher pregnancy rates than younger teens. In 2000, teens ages 18 to 19 had pregnancy rates of 129.9 per 1,000 teens, compared with 53.5 per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 17 years, and 2.1 per 1,000 among teens under age 15. (See Table 1)

Related Indicators

Sexually Active Teens, Sexually Experienced Teens, Condom Use, Birth Control Pill Use, Teen Births, Teen Abortion

State and Local Estimates

State estimates are available from "U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics: Overall Trends, Trends by Race and Ethnicity and State-by-State Information," at: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/state_pregnancy_trends.pdf

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International Estimates

International estimates for select countries are available from "Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing: Levels and Trends in Developed Countries" at: http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/3201400.pdf

International estimates also available from UNICEF's research center on "Teenage Births In Rich Nations" at: http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/repcard3e.pdf

National Goals

Healthy People 2010, a federal initiative to improve health in the United States, has set a goal to reduce pregnancies among adolescent females ages 15-17 from 68 per 1,000 in 1996, to 43 per 1,000 by 2010. Related goals include "increasing the proportion of adolescents who abstain from sexual intercourse or use condoms if currently sexually active."⁵

More information available at:
http://www.healthypeople.gov/search/stat_107obj.htm
(See goals 9-7 through 9-10, and 25-11)

In addition, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created in 1996 to help promote reducing the teen pregnancy rate, set a goal of reducing teen pregnancies by one-third between 1996 and 2005.

More information available at: http://www.teenpregnancy.org

What Works: Programs and Interventions that May Influence this Indicator

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Research References

¹The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. (November 2002). Not Just Another Single Issue: Teen Pregnancy's Link to Other Critical Social Issues. Available at: https://www.teenpregnancy.org/product/pdf/NotSingleIssue.pdf

²Henshaw, S.K. (1998). "Unintended pregnancy in the United States." Family Planning Perspectives, 30(1):24-29, 46.

³See Henshaw, 1998.

⁴Maynard, R. (Ed). (1997). Kids Having Kids: A Robin Hood Foundation Special Report on the Costs of Adolescent Childbearing. New York: Robin Hood Foundation.

⁵U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 2000. http://www.health.gov/healthypeople/Document/tableofcontents.htm#under (Goal 25-11)

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Definition

Pregnancies are computed by adding the number of live births, fetal losses, and abortions. The number of births is obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics' records of all birth certificates filed in the United States. Fetal losses are computed using estimates from the National Survey of Family Growth. The annual number of abortions is calculated from the Alan Guttmacher Institute's survey of all known abortion providers. Pregnancy rates are the number of pregnancies per 1,000 women in each specified age group. For more details, see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_07.pdf (Sources of Data in Technical Notes, p. 14)

Data Source

Data for 1976-1989: Ventura SJ, Mosher WD, Curtin SC, Abma JC, Henshaw S. Trends in Pregnancies and Pregnancy Rates by Outcome: Estimates for the United States, 1976-1996. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 21(56). 2000. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_21/sr21_056.pdf (See Table 3)

Data for 1990-2000: Ventura SJ, Abma JC, Mosher WD, Henshaw S. Estimated Pregnancy Rates for the United States, 1990-2000: An Update. National vital statistics reports; vol 52 no 23. Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. 2004. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_23.pdf (See Table 1)

Raw Data Source

Data for 1976-1989:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_21/sr21_056.pdf (see Sources of Data in Appendix, p. 45)

Data for 1990-2000:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_07.pdf (see Sources of Data in Technical Notes, p. 14)

Approximate Date of Next Update

Unknown

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