Teenage pregnancy and sexual health in the United Kingdom

The rate of teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom is relatively high, when compared with other developed countries; the only other OECD developed countries with higher teenage pregnancy rates are the United States and New Zealand. The rate of teenage pregnancy is higher in more economically deprived areas. A report in 2002 found that around half of all conceptions to under-18s were concentrated among the 30% most deprived population, with only 14% occurring among the 30% least deprived. The number of resultant births is presently at the lowest rate since the mid-1950s. Also found was that the most deprived areas had higher proportions of conceptions leading to a maternity. The 2008 underage conception rate in England and Wales was 13% lower than in 1998. Over 60% of the conceptions led to a legal abortion, the highest proportion since conception statistics began in 1969. Other studies have shown similar findings.

The Labour government elected in 1997 pledged to halve the number of conceptions to girls under 18 by 2010, but by 2008 the drop was only 13%, a level the Secretary of State for Children Ed Balls called 'disappointing', dropping by 9.5% from 2009 to 2010 despite an overall increase in fertility. By 2014, the under-18 conception rate in England had dropped to 22.9 per 1,000, approximately half the 1997 figure of 45.9.

Births to teenagers increased during the 1960s and peaked in 1971 at 50.6 per thousand of the population. After 1971, they gradually fell to their lowest level since the mid-1950s. The proportion occurring outside marriage increased from around one-in-six in the 1950s to about nine-in-ten in 2006. The abortion rate in England and Wales in 2015 was 9.9 per 1,000 women under 18, down from 17.8 in 2005.

High teenage pregnancy rates are found in areas with low GCSE examination success, such as Nottingham, Kingston upon Hull, Doncaster, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Manchester (highest), Sandwell, Bristol, Stoke on Trent, Bradford, North East Lincolnshire, and Blackpool. In 1997, a study revealed that there was a north-south divide in England in the rate of conceptions to under-18s, with the highest rates and proportion leading to maternity being in the north, and the lowest rates with the highest proportion leading to abortion, being in the south, with the exception of London, which had high rates of both conception and abortion.

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