Britain has second worst teenage pregnancy rate

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Parents should give better sex education

Britain has the second highest teenage birth rate in the developed world, beaten only by the United States.

A survey of 28 developed countries, drawn up by the United Nations Children's Fund, found that while teenage pregnancies had fallen steeply in many industrialised nations, Britain still had "alarmingly high" rates of births to women under 20.

The survey, which Unicef said was the "most comprehensive" analysis to date, shows that among those Britons aged 15 to 19, there were 31 births per 1,000 women in 1998. Korea, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden have the lowest rates of teenage births at fewer than seven per 1,000. In America, the rate was 52 births per 1,000 women, which is four times the European Union average. Britain has for years had the highest teenage birth rate in Europe. But the Unicef report highlights how little progress the UK has made in reducing the number compared with other countries.

Over the past 30 years, the Dutch have managed to reduce teenage births by 72 per cent, a decrease that has been matched by Norway, Finland, Greece, Iceland and the Czech Republic. Even higher reductions have been seen in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Sweden and Switzerland, where teenage birth rates have fallen by more than 75 per cent.

This is double the 38 per cent drop seen in Britain over the same period, although since 1998 a concerted campaign by the Government has resulted in a decline of more than 6 per cent.

One reason for Britain's poor record could be the failure to prepare youngsters for an era of much looser sexual codes with effective sex and relationship education, Unicef says. Another could be higher levels of inequality in the UK, which mean that youngsters from disadvantaged areas are less motivated to delay childbearing.

The report says: "The UK and the US are also societies that have experienced the socio-sexual transformation, but without making commensurate changes to prepare young people to cope with the new pressures.

"Contraceptive advice and services may be formally available, but in a closed atmosphere of embarrassment and secrecy. Or as one British teenager puts it – 'it sometimes seems as if sex is compulsory but contraception has failed'."

The researchers cite the experience of the Netherlands in particular, where teenagers are five times less likely to give birth than British youngsters and where abortion rates are very low. The Dutch, the report says, have the advantages of a "relatively inclusive society with more open attitudes towards sex and education, including contraception".

Sexual relationships are discussed at an early age – before barriers of embarrassment can be raised and before sex education can be interpreted as a signal to start having sex.

While 17 or 18 is physiologically a better age than 35 to begin bearing children, the Unicef report says that teenage mothers have much poorer prospects for the future.

They are more likely to drop out of school, to have poor qualifications, to be unemployed or in low-paid jobs, to live in poor housing, to suffer from depression and to rely on state benefits.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said a strategy to cut teenage pregnancies, launched in 1999, was based on giving teenagers better education and job opportunities, with better advice and support around relationships, sex and contraception. She said: "This report provides additional confirmation of the effectiveness of this approach."