INFORMATION RESOURCES ON TEENAGE PREGNANCY
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Data
As part of EMPHO’s responsibilities as lead Public Health Observatory on Teenage Pregnancy within APHO, conception data for all areas within England is kept on this webpage. Statistics on teenage conceptions for England and Wales are produced by the Office of National Statistics and disseminated via the Teenage Pregnancy Unit in the Department for Education and Skills. The data are compiled by combining information from registrations of births and notifications of legal abortions. They do not include miscarriages or illegal abortions. The year given relates to the year in which the conception occurred.
Conception data at national, regional and local authority level
The latest under 18 conception data for England relate to 2008 (provisional)
and are available for Government Office Regions and top
tier Local Authorities (LAD1), which includes Counties, Unitary
Authorities, Metropolitan Districts and London Boroughs. Trend data for
these geographic levels is available for the single years 1998-2008.
Under 18 conception data for tier 2 Local Authorities (LAD2), which
includes districts within county areas, is published for rolling 3-year
periods. This is because some Local Authorities (especially District
Councils) are relatively small, and annual numbers of under 18
conceptions can be as low as 20 or 30. The use of 3-year rolling periods
helps to smooth out the significant random fluctuations that can occur
when small numbers are involved. Trend data at this level is available
for the 3-year periods from 1998-2000 to 2006-2008 (provisional).
All under 16 conception data (for Government Office Regions and Local Authorities) is published for rolling 3-year periods. The use of 3-year rolling periods is again due to the fact that often small numbers of conceptions are involved. Under 16 conception data is available for the periods 2001-2003 to 2005-2007.
All conception data at these geographical levels also includes percentages of conceptions that led to abortions.
EMPHO has produced interactive maps of under 18 conception data, for all Local Authorities in England, using InstantAtlas from Geowise. The maps are available through the Interactive Mapping section of these pages.
The Teenage Pregnancy Unit has produced an analysis of the under 18 conception data. This spreadsheet includes analysis of teenage pregnancy trends in individual local authorities, including comparisons with statistical neighbours. It also includes trajectories required to meet LA targets, changes in teenage birth and abortion rates, the relationship between teenage pregnancy rates and deprivation for each LA, and education data and characteristics of teenage mothers.
DCSF Children’s Services Statistical Neighbour Benchmarking Tool
Statistical neighbour models provide one method for benchmarking progress. For each local authority (LA), these models designate a number of other LAs deemed to have similar characteristics. These designated LAs are known as statistical neighbours. Any LA may compare its performance (as measured by various indicators) against its statistical neighbours to provide an initial guide as to whether their performance is above or below the level that might be expected.
DCSF have produced a tool which includes all top-tier local authorities (Counties, Unitary Authorities & London Boroughs) and allows comparisons of the under 18 conception rate for a local authority with the rates for its statistical neighbours. Other children’s indicators are also included for comparisons between the same areas.
Conception data at ward level
The Office of National Statistics, whilst producing under 18 conception data at Ward level, restrict the use of this data. In particular, one of the conditions of supply of this data is that it is not reproduced on the internet. EMPHO has produced interactive maps for this Ward level data using InstantAtlas from Geowise, showing whether the conception rate in each Ward is significantly different to the England rate. The maps are available through the Interactive Mapping section of these pages.
Forecasts of under 18 conception rates, 2010
EMPHO has produced forecasts of under 18 conception rates up to 2010, for all top tier local authorities in England, and charted them against their targets. The data used in these forecasts were 1992 to 2008 (provisional) rates.
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PAGE CREATED: 1 April 2007 | PAGE REVISED: 24 February 2010