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Introduction

The Government's Every Child Matters Teenage Pregnancy website is the source of the statistics used in this report. The website contains a wealth of other material including the latest information on the Government's strategy to reduce teenage pregnancy numbers.

The Lancashire figures contained in this report have been added to our Data Download Centre.

Background

Teenage pregnancy can be strongly associated with the most deprived and socially excluded young people. There is evidence to show that having a child at a young age can damage a woman's health and overall well-being and severely limit her education and career prospects.

Tackling teenage pregnancy is central to the government's work to prevent health inequalities, child poverty and social exclusion. The National Teenage Pregnancy Strategy was set out in the Social Exclusion Unit Report on Teenage Pregnancy launched in June 1999. Its action plan for reducing the rate of teenage conceptions and getting more teenage parents into education, training or employment covers four categories:

• A national campaign to improve understanding and change behaviour.
• Joined-up action to co-ordinate action at both national and local levels.
• Better prevention to include better education in and out of school and access to contraception and to target at risk groups and reach young men.
• Better support for pregnant teenagers and teenage parents.

The Data

The counts provided are conceptions to women aged under 18 ("Teenage Conceptions") and the rate shows conceptions per 1,000 women aged 15-17 resident in the area (counts include live/still births and legal abortions). Although the numerator includes conceptions to all women aged under 18, the denominator (base population) only uses women aged 15-17 as most conceptions occur within this age group. It is important to note that those pregnancies which lead to spontaneous abortions (i.e. miscarriages) or illegal abortions are not included in these estimates.

Lancashire Results

In 2006 there were 1,285 teenage conceptions in the Lancashire NUTS-2 sub-region split between the county and the two unitary authorities as shown in Table 1. The broader Lancashire area figure represents 21.2% of all teenage conceptions in the North West or 3.1% of those in England and Wales. Overall, total numbers of teenage conceptions increased by 0.8% in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area between 1999 and 2006, in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area. Excluding the two unitary authorities, the Lancashire County area recorded a 4.3% increase over the period in question. In comparison, Blackpool recorded no change, whilst Blackburn with Darwen saw its number decline by -17.2%.

The conception rates per 1,000 women reveal that within England and Wales, the rate has on the whole fallen fairly steadily between 1999-2006, with just one minor increase between 2001 and 2002. The rate at the North West level increased in 2004 and 2005, but in 2006 dropped to 44.0. This however is noticeably in excess of the national average of 40.7.

The figures for Lancashire County and the two unitaries have not surprisingly proved much more volatile being based on smaller numbers. For Lancashire County, the 2006 rate was 40.8 per 1,000, which is virtually on a par with the England and Wales average of 40.7.

The 2006 rate for Blackburn with Darwen of 41.8 is below the North West average, and since 1999, there has been a broad pattern decline in the rate for the authority. The 2006 rate for Blackpool of 66.4 is well in excess of the other 2006 rates highlighted in Table 1. Blackpool had the seventh highest in England and Wales out of the 148 unitary authority, metropolitan districts and County Councils. The two London authorities of Lambeth (78.1) and Southwark (74.2) recorded the highest rates in 2006. Blackburn with Darwen was in 77th position whilst the Lancashire County area was in 79th place.

Table 2 details under 18 conception data for each of the 12 Lancashire districts and the two unitary authorities, by three-yearly time periods. The table also gives percentages of conceptions that resulted in an abortion. The district figures reveal that between 2004 and 2006, Ribble Valley District recorded a particularly low conception rate per 1,000 women (21.8), and had the highest rate of abortions (70.0%). Another affluent Lancashire authority, Fylde District, also recorded a low rate with 27.8. In contrast, Burnley (54.9), Hyndburn (54.3) and Pendle (50.4) recorded the highest average rates in the Lancashire County area over the three-year period from 2004- 2006. These rates were however noticeably less than the rate of 68.2 per 1,000 females aged 15-17 recorded in Blackpool unitary authority over the same period.

In general terms, the period between 1998-00 and 2004-06, saw reductions in conception rates in most Lancashire districts with the county rate declining from 46.0 to 41.4. Of note were noticeable falls in Burnley, Hyndburn and Wyre, whilst in contrast Chorley recorded the most significant increase.

Legal Abortions

Our Area Profiles contain details of legal abortions from the Department of Health. The results cover numbers of abortions, rates per 1,000 women, results by various age-groups, and gestation week at time of abortion. The figures go down to the Primary Care Trust (PCT) area level, and the 2007 results for the five PCTs that cover the broader Lancashire (NUTS-2) area reveal a high abortion rate for women aged under 18 in East Lancashire PCT. The other four Lancashire PCTs had under-18 abortion rates that were below the England average.

For further details, or if you have any ideas for improving the content of this article, please contact:
Bryan Moulding
Tel 01772 534172
Email Bryan.Moulding@lancashire.gov.uk