11 Facts About Teen Pregnancy
- The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world – twice as high as in England or Canada.
- 2006 saw the first rise in the U.S. teen pregnancy rate in 15 years.
- An estimated 750,000 teens will become pregnant this year.
- About 1 in 3 women become pregnant at least once before they're 20.
- A sexually active teen who does not use contraceptives has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.
- It affects education - only a third of teen mothers earn their high school diploma. And only 1.5% have a college degree by age 30.
- It also affects their kids - girls born to teen mothers are more likely to be teen mothers themselves. Boys born to teen moms are more likely to end up in prison.
- 75% of girls and over half of boys report that girls who have sex do so because their boyfriends want them to.
- 8 in 10 girls and 6 in 10 boys say they wish they had waited until they were older to have sex.
- Most teens (6 in 10) and adults (3 in 4) believe that teen boys often receive the message that they are “expected to have sex.”
- Diapers are expensive, but it's nothing compared to the $9 billion that teen pregnancy costs the United States each year. This includes increased spending in child welfare costs and public sector health care.
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