TEEN PREGNANCY STATISTICs
Even though the teen pregnancy rate has declined over the past few decades, the fact of the matter is that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of the Western industrialized world. It is true that the teen pregnancy and birth rate was much higher prior to 1980 (and especially in the 1950s and 1960s), but at the time young women were getting married and having children before the age of 20. Most of the teen pregnancies occurring before 1980 were to married women; now most of today's teen mothers are unwed. Here are some more interesting teen pregnancy statistics:
How many teens are becoming pregnant?
* Despite declines in rates of teen pregnancy in the U.S., about 820,000 teens become pregnant each year. That means that 34 percent of teenagers have at least one pregnancy before they turn 20.
* 79 percent of teenagers who become pregnant are unmarried.
* Utah's teen pregnancy rate is high, as well as Southern teen pregnancy but these are areas where women still get married prior to the age of 20 with some regularity (although this is changing).
* 80 percent of teenage pregnancies are unintended.
* Nearly four in ten teenage girls whose first intercourse experience happened at 13 or 14 report that the sex was unwanted or involuntary.
* The main rise in the teen pregnancy rate is among girls younger than 15*
* Close to 25 percent of teen mothers have a second child within two years of the first birth.*
Social, educational and financial costs of teen pregnancy
* The United State spends $7 billion each year due to the costs of teen pregnancy.
* Only one-third of teenage mothers complete high school and receive their diplomas
* By age 30, only 1.5 percent of women who had pregnancies as a teenager have a college degree.
* 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare
* Within the first year of becoming teen mothers, one-half of unmarried teen mothers go...