More young teenage girls in Renfrewshire getting pregnant than ever before according to government stats

Jul 13 2010 by Alison Rennie, Paisley Daily Express

MORE young teenage girls in Renfrewshire are getting pregnant than ever before.

Latest figures from the Scottish Government for 2008 show the rate of girls aged under 16 getting pregnant in Renfrewshire is higher than the overall national number.

In Renfrewshire the number of girls aged from 13 to 15 getting pregnant stood at 8.4 per 1,000 teens in the three years from 2006 to 2008. For Scotland, the rate is 8.0 per 1,000 teenage girls aged 13 to 15.

Worryingly, the rate is going up, from 7.6 per 1,000 13 to 15-year-olds in the three years from 2005 to 2007 in Renfrewshire.

Looking at the figures for older teenagers, the number of teenage pregnancies in girls aged between 15 and 19 is coming in below the Scottish rate.

The data from 2008 shows the pregnancy rate per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 was 50.9 in Renfrewshire, compared to 55.7 across Scotland.

And that number had dropped from 55.1 per 1,000 girls in 2007 in Renfrewshire.

A spokesman for Renfrewshire Council said: “The statistics in Renfrewshire are generally lower or in line with the Scottish average.”