Teenage pregnancies dropped to their lowest level ever in England and Wales after the first Covid lockdown, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics said 2,600 girls under the age of 18 fell pregnant between April and June 2020.
This was down by about a third on the figure in the second quarter of 2019 (3,788) and the lowest since modern records began in 1998.
There were 3,597 teenage pregnancies during the first three months of 2020, for comparison, before the country went into lockdown on March 24.
Teenage conception rates have more than halved since around 2008, believed to be due to better sex education and access to sexual health services.
But the accelerated drop is likely due to a fall in casual sex during lockdown. There were similar falls in sexually transmitted infection rates at the start of the pandemic.
Strict Covid rules imposed last spring put the entire nation under house arrest and made socialising with others indoors illegal.
The Office for National Statistics said 2,600 girls under the age of 18 fell pregnant between April and June 2020. This was down by about a third on the figure in the second quarter of 2019 (3,788) and the lowest since modern records began in 1998. There were 3,597 teenage pregnancies during the first three months of 2020, for comparison, before the country went into lockdown on March 24
Broken down regionally, the North East of England had the highest teen pregnancy rate with 16.2 conceptions per 100,000 people.
It was followed by the North West where the rate was 15.8, Yorkshire and the Humber at 13.2 and the West Midlands (11.5).
At the other end of the scale, London had the lowest rate at 7.5 which was nearly half the proportion at the same time in 2019.
The South West (8.6), East Midlands (8.9) and South East (9) also saw below average rates. At a national level, Wales had a higher rate (12.8) than England (10.8).
Overall, the second quarter figure for 2020 is the lowest on record. It is four times lower than the record high of 11,157 in the fourth quarter of 1998.
One view is that the dramatic fall in the past two decades is down to the Department of Health’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, launched in 1999, which led to better sex education and access to sexual health services.
AREAS WITH LOWEST TEEN PREGNANCY RATES AFTER FIRST LOCKDOWN (PER 100,000) Windsor and Maidenhead Unitary Authority
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