County teens abstain more, practice safe sex

BY EMILY AYSHFORD eayshford@kenoshanews.com  


    Nationally, fewer high school students are having sex and getting pregnant, and more are using condoms.

    Same goes for Kenosha County, where the numbers are even better than national rates.

    According to a national report released Friday, in 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported ever having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003.

    Thirty-four percent of the students reported having had sex during a three-month period in 2005. Of those, 63 percent — about 3 million — used condoms. That’s up from 46 percent in 1991.

    According to the 2005 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the percentage of high school students having sex is even lower in the Badger State.

    Only 40 percent of Wisconsin high school students reported ever having sex in 2005. Of those, about 65 percent said they used a condom the last time they had sex.

    That compares to 57 percent in 1999. “That’s a big jump, which is encouraging,” said Gary Brown, executive director of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc ..

    The national report says the teen birth rate in 2005 was 21 per 1,000 for girls ages 15 to 17 — a new national low.

    In Kenosha County, the rate was even lower at 17 per 1,000.

    For teenage girls ages 15 to 19, the birth rate was 32 per 1,000 in Kenosha County in 2005. That compares to about 49 per 1,000 in 1989.

    “Just like the national rate there has been this downward trend,” Brown said.

    Births among African American teens in Kenosha County have seen the biggest drop — from 187 per 1,000 in 1992 to about 87 per 1,000 in 2005.

    Another important drop for Kenosha County that year was that no teen mothers had subsequent births, which is the fi rst time that’s happened in many, many years, Brown said.

By the numbers

High school students having sex:

National: 47 percent Wisconsin: 40 percent

Teens ages 15 to 17 giving birth:

National: 21 per 1,000 Kenosha County: 17 per 1,000

High schoolers using condoms:

National: 63 percent Wisconsin: 65 percent