Statistics on teens having sex

These are external links and will open in a new window. Not for the first time, we've been hearing that teenagers now are having less sex than previous generations. A cursory search of the question "are teenagers having less sex? The latest headlines appear to come from a report by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service BPAS , looking at what's behind declining teenage pregnancy rates. The charity surveyed a representative group of 1, teenagers and found that they placed a high importance on studying, and spending time with family.

The share of high school students who are sexually active has fluctuated since , ranging from 30 to 38 percent. In , Appendix 1 Among black students, however, the proportion who reported they were sexually active decreased from 59 percent in to 33 percent in The proportion of high school students who reported they had ever had vaginal sexual intercourse declined between and , from 54 to 46 percent. Between and this figure fluctuated only slightly, and then further declined to 41 percent in Roughly a third of both male and female high school students reported being sexually active in 30 percent for both males and females.

The percentage of teens in the U. The latest estimates — which are based on data gathered from to — are that 42 percent of girls and women ages 15 to 19 who have never been married have had sex, down from 51 percent in , according to the report. For guys who have never been married, 44 percent have had sex, down from 60 percent in These trends follow another pattern that researchers have observed in previous studies: Teen birth rates are also on the decline, according to the report published today June 22 by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Parents, relax. Fewer high school-aged teens are having sex, and when they do, they're most likely using contraception, a new government report found. Sexual intercourse among teens has declined again after rates stabilized between , according to the National Center for Health Statistics report on teen sexual activity and contraceptive use released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new study shows that just over 40 percent of boys and girls reported having had sexual intercourse by age 18 — a huge decline from the peak of when 57 percent of teens between the ages of 15 and 19 reported having had sex.