England's teenage pregnancy rate, the highest in western Europe, has fallen for the second successive year in a row. With National Office of Statistics figures revealing a 2.4 per cent drop in the pregnancy rates between 1999-2000 among the under-18s, over 4,000 pregnancies in teenage girls have been prevented since 1998. The picture was not all rosy with the under 16 pregnancy rate remaining relatively static at 8.3 conceptions per 1,000. However this group will always show higher statistical fluctuations due to the fact that conceptions within this group are smaller. The government has pledged to halve the rate of pregnancy among the under-18s in England by 2010.
