Nearly half of teens have had sex by age 19, survey finds

More than 42 percent of nevermarried adolescents ages 15-19 say they have had sex at least once.

Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics report that from 2011-2015,42.4 percent of never-married girls (4million) and 44.2 percent of nevermarried boys (4.4 million) had sexual intercourse.

Among the had not had sex, the reasons varied. More than 35 percent of girls and almost 28 percent of boys said that it was against their religion or moral code.

A fifth of both boys and girls cited fear of pregnancy as the reason for abstaining. Almost 23 percent said they had not yet found the right person.

Researchers gathered the data from September 2011 to September 2015 in interviews with 20,621 menand women, including 4,134 teenagers. The sample is nationally representative.

According to the lead author, Joyce C. Ab ma, a demographer with the agency, sexual activity among teenagers declined sharply in the1990s, leveling off in 2002.

Teenage pregnancy rates have also been declining, but the birth rate from 2011-2015—34 per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 — is much higher than the rate in, for example,per 1,000), France( seven) or Germany (five).

There were considerable variations by race and ethnicity among boys. From 2011-2015,42.8 percent of white boys ,45.7 percent of Hispanic sand 58.6 percent of African-Americans had had sex at least once. The differences among girls by race and ethnicity were insignificant.

Sexual experience varied with living conditions. A significantly lower percentage of boys and girls who lived with both parents when they were 14 had had sex. Boys, but not girls, were more likely to be sexually active if their mothers had not graduated from high school.

Most teenagers had their first sexual experience with someone with whom they were “going steady,” but 13 percent of girls and 27.3 percent of boys first slept with someone with whom they were “just friends.”

Condoms were by far the mostcommon form of birth control—97percent of teenagers reported using them. The second choice was withdrawal or the pill, with a little more than half reporting they used those methods.

About 17 percent used Depo-Provera, the injectable contraceptive, and much smaller percentages used a patch, an intrauterine device or an implant.

“The increase in contraceptive use has continued ,” Ab ma said. “This is at least partly due to the wider variety of methods available.But given the large percent that still use methods such as the condom and withdrawal, which have higher failure rates, there’ s lot of improvement left togo .”