Number of under-18s becoming pregnant fell to 20-year low during first lockdown
There were 2,600 conceptions to under-18s between April and June 2020, according to provisional data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is the lowest number of conceptions in a single quarter in more than 20 years.
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Hide AdIt is a fall of 27.7% from the first three months of 2020, which saw 3,597 conceptions.
And it is down 31.3% from the same quarter in 2019.
The number of pregnancies to girls and teenagers under 18 has been on a downward trend over the past two decades.
The North West was the region with the highest number of conceptions to under-18s between April and June 2020 – 466 in the latest quarter.
This was followed by the South East (340 conceptions) and Yorkshire and the Humber (292 conceptions).
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Hide AdThe conception rate – the number of conceptions per thousand girls aged 15 to 17 – also fell.
There were 10.9 conceptions per thousand girls aged 15-17 in the three months to June 2020, down from 15.2 in the previous quarter.
The figures cover pregnancies that result in a live birth, stillbirth or an abortion.