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Sexual health: teenage pregnancy

Associated with unplanned pregnancy is teenage pregnancy. It must be accepted that many teenage pregnancies are not unplanned, unwanted or undesirable.  However, a high level of teenage pregnancy is a cause for concern, and pregnancies in women under the age of sixteen are particularly undesirable in that they imply that sexual intercourse has taken place under the legal age of consent.

The following summary points are drawn from the wide range of teenage pregnancy data available in Excel tables and charts and in reports on the ISD Scotland website. The data presented on the ISD website relates to deliveries (live and stillbirths), therapeutic abortions and miscarriages in young women under the age of 20, with age referring to age at time of conception. Further notes and definitions are available on the ISD website.

  • The teenage pregnancy rate in Scotland in 2003/04 in the 13-19 year old age group was 42.4 per 1,000 women (9,322 pregnancies).
  • The teenage pregnancy rate in the 13-15 year old age group has fluctuated since the early 1990s, peaking in 1996/97 at 9.8 per 1,000 women. The lowest rates recorded are in the more recent years.
  • The teenage pregnancy rate in the 16-19 year old age group has shown a slight downward trend over recent years. The rate was at its highest in 1991/92 at 77.4 per 1,000 women (10,459 pregnancies). In 2003/04 the rate was 68.2 per 1,000 women (8,616 pregnancies).
  • Comparing teenage pregnancy rates across NHS boards, in 2003/04 Tayside had the highest rate in the 13-15, 16-19 and 13-19 year old age groups (10.3, 78.6 and 50.6 per 1,000 women respectively). Teenage pregnancy rates were generally lowest in the Island boards. For the mainland boards, Borders had the lowest rate in the 13-15 year old (3.6 per 1,000 women) and 13-19 year old (37.7 per 1,000 women) age groups. In the 16-19 year old age group, Forth Valley (62.2 per 1,000 women) had the lowest pregnancy rate.
  • Comparing teenage pregnancy rates across councils areas, in 2003/04 Dundee City (64.4 per 1,000 women) had the highest teenage pregnancy rate for 13-19 year olds, followed by Clackmannanshire (54.4 per 1,000 women) and Aberdeen City (52.5 per 1,000 women). Western Isles (15.9 per 1,000 women), East Renfrewshire (19.5 per 1,000 women) and East Dunbartonshire (23.5 per 1,000 women) had the lowest teenage pregnancy rates.
  • The delivery rate and the rate of therapeutic abortion and miscarriages among 13-15 year olds are similar for all years. In 2003/04 the delivery rate was 3.1 per 1,000 women and the rate of therapeutic abortion and miscarriage was 4.4 per 1,000 women. In the  16-19 year old age group, the rate of therapeutic abortion and miscarriages is lower than the delivery rate in all years, remaining stable at around 26-29 per 1,000 women. In the period reported, the delivery rate in 2003/04 is the lowest recorded (39.4 per 1,000).

Note: The most recently available data relates to the financial year 2003/04. There has been a delay in updating the teenage pregnancy statistics on the ISD Scotland website due to incomplete SMR02 data submission. ISD are working with the NHS board concerned to resolve this.