The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) has a long history of providing representative data on the nation's high school students. These assessments are crucial to CDC's mission of identifying health behaviors and experiences; understanding the determinants and co-occurrence of risks;…

Problem: Sexual identity and sex of sexual contacts can both be used to identify sexual minority youth. Significant health disparities exist between sexual minority and nonsexual minority youth. However, not enough is known about health-related behaviors that contribute to negative health outcomes among sexual minority youth and how the prevalence…

Teen birth rates and teen pregnancy prevention strategies vary widely across individual states in the US, which has the highest overall teen birth rate among developed nations. California and Texas, the two most populous states currently accounting for a quarter of all teen births, have taken very different approaches to addressing adolescent…

When it comes to making decisions about sex, teens today are doing far better than they were 20 years ago. Fewer teens are having sex, and among those who are, more teens are using contraception. The happy result is that teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined dramatically. Despite this extraordinary progress, teen pregnancy and childbearing…

Problem: Priority health-risk behaviors contribute to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among youth and adults. Population-based data on these behaviors at the national, state, and local levels can help monitor the effectiveness of public health interventions designed to protect and promote the health of youth nationwide. Reporting…

The Latino population is the fastest-growing major racial/ethnic group in the United States. By 2020, approximately 16 percent of the population will be Latino. This increase will be even more pronounced among teens. This fact sheet summarizes data from the National Vital Statistics Reports on reported sexual activity, pregnancy rates, and…

This report presents national birth rate trends for teenagers, focusing on the 1990s. The percent change in rates for 1991-2000 is presented for the United States, and the change for 1991-99 is presented for states. Tabular and graphical descriptions of the trends are discussed for the nation and each state by age group, race, and Hispanic origin.…

This publication examines in detail the problem of teenage pregnancy in South Carolina. Following the executive summary and a listing of eight recommendations based on the report, chapter 1 presents tables of selected vital statistics related to teen pregnancy in South Carolina. All statistics are shown by county and by Department of Health and…

These charts describe adults' and adolescents' views on teen sex and pregnancy. Data come from national surveys of adults and adolescents that examined attitudes toward teen sex and pregnancy, factors influencing teens' sexual decisions, parents' roles, and adults' and teens' advice for policymakers. There is near unanimous agreement among both…

This research brief focuses on the birth, pregnancy, contraceptive, and relationship behaviors of Hispanic teens because they represent an important risk group. Teen pregnancy and birth rates for U.S. teens have declined dramatically in recent years. Yet for Hispanic teens, reductions in teen pregnancy and childbearing have lagged behind that of…

Noting that rates of teen pregnancies and births have declined over the past decade, this analysis examined how much of the progress is due to fewer teens having sex and how much to lower rates of pregnancy among sexually active teens. The analysis drew on data from the federal government's National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), a large,…

Adolescent childbearing is a major concern because of the associated negative health, social, and economic consequences. To determine whether teenagers are using organized family services to prevent unwanted pregnancies, the National Reporting System for Family Planning Services began in 1972 to collect information on family planning clinic…

Teenagers' utilization of family planning services is of major concern in view of the estimated 4.1 million adolescent females at risk, defined as fertile, sexually active teenagers who are not pregnant and who are not seeking to become pregnant. To obtain information regarding teenagers' use of medical family planning services in clinical…

This fact sheet presents several data tables related to teen pregnancy, birth rates, abortion, contraceptive use, and sexually transmitted diseases. The data reveal that during the 1990s, rates of teen childbearing have declined, returning to the levels reached in the mid-1980s. Declines come from a lower proportion of teens having sex and a…

The purpose of this report is to assemble in a single volume the latest available data on current trends and projections of births and enrollments made by various agencies such as the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and others to assist school management in…