News

Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms, sending the teen birth rate to a record low.

More young people are finishing high school, as well, and more little kids are being read to, according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of U.S. children. It's good news on a number of key wellness indicators, experts said of the report being released Friday.

“The implications for the population are quite positive in terms of their health and their well-being,” said Edward Sondik, director of the National Centre for Health Statistics, part of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “The lower figure on teens having sex means the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is lower.”

In 2005, 47 per cent of high school students – 6.7 million – reported ever having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 per cent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003.

Thirty-four per cent of the students reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005. Of those, 63 per cent – about 3 million – used condoms. That is up from 46 per cent in 1991.

The teen birth rate, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women aged 15 to 17 in 2005 – a historic low. It was down from 39 births per 1,000 teens in 1991.

“This is very good news,” Mr. Sondik said. “Young teen mothers and their babies are at a greater risk of both immediate and long-term difficulties.”

The birth rate in the 15-to-19 age group was 40 per 1,000 in 2005, also down sharply from the previous decade.

Education campaigns that started years ago are having a significant effect, said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based nonprofit group that focuses on prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“I think the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the efforts in the '80s and '90s had a lot to do with that,” Mr. Wagoner said of the improved numbers on teen sex, condoms and adolescent births.

“We need to encourage young teens to delay sexual initiation and we need to make sure they get all the information they need about condoms and birth control,” he said.

The report was compiled from statistics and studies at 22 federal agencies, and covered 38 key indicators, including infant mortality, academic achievement rates and the number of children living in poverty. The 2005 figures were the most comprehensive numbers available.

Other highlights:

• The percentage of children covered by health insurance decreased slightly. In 2005, 89 per cent of children had health insurance coverage at some point during the year, down from 90 per cent the previous year.

• The percentage of low birthweight infants (born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces) increased. It was 8.2 per cent in 2005, up from 8.1 per cent in 2004.

• More youngsters are getting reading time. Sixty per cent of children aged 3 to 5 (and not in kindergarten) were read to daily by a family member in 2005, up from 53 per cent in 1993.

• The percentage of children who had at least one parent working year round and full-time increased to 78.3 per cent in 2005 from 77.6 per cent the previous year.

• More young people are completing high school. In 2005, 88 per cent of young adults had finished high school – up from 84 per cent in 1980.

The report was released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics – a consortium of federal agencies that includes the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Census Bureau and the Administration for Children and Families.