Thursday, November 07, 2013

Teenagers behaving more responsibly

Amidst all the furore about teenage sex, not only the sordid West Auckland carry on but the supply of free condoms to adolescents, the following statistics are interesting.

In 2012 only 18 girls under 15 years old gave birth.  There is a strong downward trend.

 
1996 27      
1997 48      
1998 34      
1999 30      
2000 31      
2001 28      
2002 29      
2003 29      
2004 36      
2005 37      
2006 35      
2007 52      
2008 39      
2009 29      
2010 26      
2011 25      
2012 18      

Neither is this downward trend caused by increased abortions. They are also falling rapidly, more than 50 percent since 2006:

 
1996 60     
1997 56     
1998 65     
1999 56     
2000 74     
2001 66     
2002 78     
2003 89     
2004 85     
2005 92     
2006 105     
2007 104     
2008 83     
2009 79     
2010 84     
2011 68     
2012 51      

These patterns are also reflected in the 15-19 year-old population.

These stats do not prove that teenagers are having less sex. Or that they waiting till they are older to start having sex. But they do show that teenagers are behaving more responsibly in the area of birth control and pregnancy prevention.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's have a chart on rates of STI's just to keep the balance

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Why don't you try and construct one from the abundance of data available here:

https://surv.esr.cri.nz/PDF_surveillance/STISurvRpt/2011/2011AnnualSTIRpt.pdf

reed said...

I think the decline is probably due to long term contraceptive implants being given to young girls.

Richard said...

So what's your theory, Lindsay?

Do you endorse the Hawke’s Bay DHB’s Condom Card initiative?

Reed, if your theory is correct, the pregnancy rates and the STD rates ought to have diverged. Have they?

Lindsay Mitchell said...


"Do you endorse the Hawke’s Bay DHB’s Condom Card initiative?"

For some kids, yes. It's a depressing reality. If they can't be discouraged from early sex then preventing pregnancy is vital.

Richard said...

I've stated my position. ("I don’t support the Hawke’s Bay DHB’s initiative.") But I'm not married to it!

Some libertarians need to pull their heads out of the clouds and face the depressing realities.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lindsay

For completeness could you also post the conviction rate for men having sex with underage girls.

We hear so little about the dozens of convictions the birth rate tounder 15 year olds must be generating, and I wonder if the rate of successful prosecution is going up or not.

Thanks

Mary

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Mary, That would probably require an OIA request to the Police/Justice Ministry. The convictions you are interested in would be categorised under sexual offences. My experience when OIAing Police isn't one that augurs a productive result. You'll probably find that attempted sex is lumped in with actual sex. But also, some (possibly a small majority) of the fathers will be minors themselves which would determine the nature and outcome of any prosecution.

reed said...

Richard
I hate statistics. I read through the STI statistics - as far as I can tell no conclusions can be drawn about anything.

In spite of any statistics I think there is a correlation between contraceptive implants and reduction of pregnancies. My wife (who is a midwife) tells me there has been a significant increase of contraceptive implants being given in the last few years in Rotorua. Presumably the implants are given to reduce unwanted pregnancies of which teen pregnancies would be a significant proportion.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lindsay

Thanks for your comments. I may be unduly cynical, but the revelations of the last week suggests that there are NO prosecutions for underage sex. The Police just turn a blind eye - as does the rest of society.

Mary