Ten Facts About Unplanned and Teen Pregnancy
- At present, about half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.
- That amounts to about three million unplanned pregnancies each year.
- Seven in ten adults believe reducing unwanted pregnancy in the United States is an important goal.
- Teen pregnancy and birth rates in the United States have declined by about one-third since the early 1990's.
- Even so, three in ten girls in the United States get pregnant by age 20.
- Teens say parents most influence their decisions about sex.
- The U.S. still leads the fully industrialized world in teen pregnancy and birth rates—by a wide margin. In fact, the U.S. rates are nearly double those of Great Britain, at least four times those of France and Germany, and more than ten times that of Japan.
- About two-thirds of sexually active teens wish they had waited longer to lose their virginity.
- The rate of unplanned pregnancy remained unchanged between 1994 and 2001 at 51 pregnancies per 1000 women aged 15-44. Over the same time period, the rate of unwanted pregnancy actually increased slightly (4 percent) between 1994 and 2001—from 31.9 to 33.2 unwanted pregnancies per 1,000 women age 15-44.
- Over half (55 percent) of all unplanned pregnancies occur to women in their twenties. By comparison, only 21 percent occur to teen girls.