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Three different measures are used in this report to describe pregnancies of teenage women: teenage mother birth rate, teenage fertility rate, and teen pregnancy rate. In the five year period 1995-1999, mothers under the age of 20 accounted for 50.03 births per 1,000 live births; this is the teenage mother birth rate presented in Appendix 3. The births to 15-19 year old mothers can be expressed a different way, as 18.83 live births per 1,000 women in the 15-19 age group; this is the teenage fertility rate (the age-specific live birth rate for the 15-19 age group) presented in Table 12 for 1994-1998. A third and broader measure, the teen pregnancy rate, is the sum of live births, stillbirths and hospital or clinic abortive outcomes per 1,000 women in the 15-19 age group. The following table presents teen pregnancy numbers and rates for each fiscal year from 1993/1994 to 1998/1999.
Teen pregnancy and pregnancy rates by age group are available on the Health Data Warehouse at http://www.hdw.moh.hnet.bc.ca/hdw/subjects/pregnancy.htm. The data are available for fiscal years 1990/1991 to 1998/1999 by various geographic areas including local health areas and health regions. Readers who do not have access to the Ministry of Health's intranet can request this information from the Vital Statistics Agency.
| 1993/1994 | 1994/1995 | 1995/1996 | 1996/1997 | 1997/1998 | 1998/1999 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Numbers* | ||||||
| Live births | 2,426 | 2,497 | 2,487 | 2,191 | 2,118 | 2,063 |
| Stillbirths | 17 | 25 | 17 | 14 | 27 | 13 |
| Miscarriages | 449 | 458 | 387 | 352 | 326 | 280 |
| Abortions | 2,713 | 2,916 | 2,803 | 2,875 | 2,975 | 2,791 |
| Total pregnancies | 5,605 | 5,896 | 5,694 | 5,432 | 5,446 | 5,147 |
| Population* | 108,996 | 112,917 | 117,212 | 122,949 | 126,494 | 128,720 |
| Rates per 1,000* | ||||||
| Live births | 22.3 | 22.1 | 21.2 | 17.8 | 16.7 | 16.0 |
| Stillbirths | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Miscarriages | 4.1 | 4.1 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| Abortions | 24.9 | 25.8 | 23.9 | 23.4 | 23.5 | 21.7 |
| Teen pregnancy rate | 51.4 | 52.2 | 48.6 | 44.2 | 43.1 | 40.0 |
Notes: * Numbers, population, and rates per 1,000 are shown for the female population in the 15 to 19 age group only.
Pregnancies resulting in multiple births were only counted once.
Sources: Live births and stillbirths: British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency.
Hospital and clinic abortions and miscarriages: Information Systems Inpatient Programs, Ministry of Health.
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