Number of teenage pregnancies on the decline

After an alarming rise in the rate of teenage pregnancies between 2000 and 2008, the number of pregnancies has been on the decline ever since.

Starting at 114 in the year 2000, rapidly going up every year until peaking at 189 in 2008, the numbers have since fallen. The rate fell to 95 in 2011, followed by 74 (in 2012), 72 (in 2013), 69 (in 2014) and 28 (till July 2015).

Information tabled in parliament by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, in reply to Labour MP Luciano Busuttil, also shows instances where young girls, aged 11, 12 and 13, had a baby.

In 2008, the government started keeping records of teenagers who return to school or find a job. The data shows that, on average every year, 27 teenagers remained at home between 2008 and 2014. The rest either returned to secondary school, post-secondary school or found a job.