Priority Indicator #9: Teen Pregnancy Rate (Ages 10-17)

Contents: Background Information | Data Tables | Data Charts | Commentary | Download Data


Background Information

What Does This Indicator Mean?
 Teen pregnancy rate measures the proportion of young women who become pregnant in a given time period.  A higher rate is often associated with higher rates of social service utilization, lower educational attainment and higher unemployment rates for the teen mothers.

Referring to a specific time period and geographic region, this indicator measures the proportion of women aged 10 to 17 who become pregnant* divided by the total number of women aged 10 to 17 in the region, multiplied by 1000 to determine the rate.

*Defined for these purposes as the total number of births to women aged 10 to 17 plus the total number of induced terminations for the same population. 

Other Risk Factors or Indicators to Consider
Pregnancy during the mother’s teen years is considered high-risk.  Teen pregnancy is related to a variety of negative birth outcomes, including induced termination of pregnancy (abortion), low birthweight and infant mortality.

In addition to the effects directly related to the mother’s and baby’s health, the prevalence and impact of teen pregnancy on the overall community is also important.  Access to adequate health care (e.g. health insurance coverage), abortion rate, and risk factors such as high school drop-out rate, teen drug and alcohol abuse, the use of public assistance programs (e.g. TANF) and unemployment rate in the community should also be reviewed.

Limitations of the Data
These data include only live births or induced terminations.  They do not include the number of involuntary pregnancy terminations (e.g. miscarriage).  As such, they will under-report, though slightly, the actual teen pregnancy rate.

Also, pregnancy counts are aggregated at the zip code level for a combined three year period to ensure confidentiality.

Data Sources

  • Teen pregnancy data are from the Center for Health Statistics, Oregon Health Division



  • County population data are from the Population Research Center, Portland State University

Presentation and Description of Data

The table below shows the teen pregnancy rate per 1,000 females ages 10-17.

Region

1996

1997

1998

1999 2000

Oregon

18.8

18.0

17.2

15.9 14.0

Marion County

23.9

26.6

21.0

19.9 17.6

Polk County

15.7

16.1

14.6

10.6 7.8
Source: Oregon Health Division data, compiled by Marion-Polk CHIP. http://www.willamette.edu/publicpolicy/chip

The chart below shows teen pregnancy rates from 1990 to 2000.

Commentary

For all years from 1990 to 2000 the teen pregnancy rate in Polk County was lower than the state average and the rate in Marion County. The rate for Marion County was higher in all years than the state average.

The teen pregnancy rate in Marion County remained relatively stable between 1990 and 1996.  After an increase in 1997, the rate fell each year between 1998 and 2000.  The 2000 rate in Marion County was 17.6 pregnancies per 1,000 teens.

The rate in Polk County was fairly steady between 1990 and 1998, with a decline in 1991.  Recently the teen pregnancy rate in Polk County has decreased, and was 7.8 pregnancies per 1,000 teens in 2000. The statewide teen pregnancy rate remained fairly steady during the past decade, declining slightly in the past few years to a 2000 rate of 14.0 pregnancies per 1,000 teens. 

Teen pregnancy rates are not available by zip code at this time due to lack of population data.  Counts of teen pregnancies by zip code are aggregated over three year periods to ensure confidentiality.  The tables below show numbers of teen pregnancies that occurred in each zip code over three year periods.  Some zip codes have larger populations than others, and so higher teen pregnancy counts should not necessarily be taken to signify higher teen pregnancy rates. (Click here to see a map of zip codes in Marion and Polk Counties.)

Marion County

Zip Code 1992-1994 1995-1997 1997-1999
97002 10 9 10
97020 1 2 1
97026 17 16 14
97032 11 23 19
97071 105 127 112
97137 2 8 5
97301 221 202 188
97302 85 98 80
97303 199 241 238
97304 10 17 18
97305 99 140 140
97306 27 52 61
97309 2 2 1
97310 3 4 3
97325 17 26 22
97346 7 2 6
97352 20 14 17
97358 4 1 0
97359 0 1 0
97360 4 5 5
97362 13 21 17
97375 8 2 0
97381 41 42 51
97383 19 25 32
97384 1 1 1
97385 4 7 5
97392 12 13 9

Polk County

Zip Code 1992-1994 1995-1997 1997-1999

97304

 27 42 42
97338 40 41 36
97344 3 5 6
97347 5 8 7
97351 36 24 26
97361 15 20 20
97378 3 1 2
97396 5 5 4
Source: Oregon Health Division data, compiled by Marion-Polk CHIP. http://www.willamette.edu/publicpolicy/chip

Download the Data

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This page last updated 2 October 2001