There are one billion teenagers in the world today. Half are young women. Many will become pregnant. Many in certain countries are pushed into early marriage. Education of girls has proven to delay the child-bearing years, which is key to detracting from 'population momentum' - the phenomenon that occurs when large numbers of women enter their child-bearing years.

 

Among that demography, sexually active teenager who doesn't use contraception has a 90% chance of pregnancy within one year. See chart below:

 

At age 15, 75% are virgins.
At age 17, 50% are virgins.
At age 20, 20% are virgins.

 

U.S. teenagers have one of the highest pregnancy rates in the western world -- twice as high as rates found in England, New Zealand, and Canada

Birth control pills are considered nearly 99% effective at preventing pregnancy when taken correctly. However, studies have shown up to 20% of teens using birth control pills forget to take them at least twice a month

In 1995, contraceptive use at first intercourse was 78%, with 2/3 of it condom use.

9 in 10 sexually active women and their partners use a contraceptive method, although not always consistently or correctly.

 

Each year, almost one million teenage women - 11% of those aged 15?19 become pregnant, representing 20% of those who have had sexual intercourse. 18% of sexually active 15?17-year-olds become pregnant.

 

Of teenage pregnancies, 14% end in miscarriages, 31% end in abortions, and 55% end in birth. 76% of teenage births occur outside of marriage. 13% of all US births are to teens.

 

1/4 of teenage mothers have a 2nd child within 2 years of their first birth. As many as 20% of teens using birth control pills forget to take them at least twice a month.

 

"I don't know how I got pregnant - we only did it once!" Some teenage girls would say when asked while others would say like: "I was saving it for the right guy and when I was older, but suddenly he seemed like the man of my dreams and he told me he loved me, and I thought that if anything happened, we'd always be together and love would take care of everything".

 

But the truth is, most of these teenage girls are just careless, because they fail to listen to their parents. Most teenage girls would feel that once they are 16 or 17 years of age, and they become sexually active, they are matured to do whatever they do. Unfortunately, whatever they do wrong, prior to becoming 18, the parents get the burden.

SOME FACTS ABOUT SEXUAL ACTIVITY IN THE US:

•Nearly half (46%) of all 15-19-year-olds in the United States have had sex at least once.

•By age 15, only 13% of teens have ever had sex. However, by the time they reach age 19, seven in 10 teens have engaged in sexual intercourse.

•Most young people have sex for the first time at about age 17, but do not marry until their middle or late 20s. This means that young adults are at risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for nearly a decade.

•Teens are waiting longer to have sex than they did in the past. Some 13% of females and 15% of males aged 15-19 in 2002 had had sex before age 15, compared with 19% and 21%, respectively, in 1995.

•The majority (59%) of sexually experienced teen females had a first sexual partner who was 1-3 years their senior. Only 8% had first partners who were six or more years older.

•More than three-quarters of teen females report that their first sexual experience was with a steady boyfriend, a fiancé, a husband or a cohabiting partner.