New CDC data brief conducted by the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) reveals that between 2015-2017, around 40 percent of teenage girls and boys reported ever having had sexual intercourse. Among female teenagers, the numbers remained similar to rates observed in previous years going back to 2002, whereas the percentage of male teenagers who had ever had sexual intercourse declined by 17 percent between 2015-2017.
Around 1 in 5 youth ages, 15-24 reported having had their first sexual intercourse experience by age 15. Overwhelmingly the majority of girls (78%) and boys (89%) who had sex before age 20, in this age group, reported that they used contraception during their first sexual experience. Ninety-seven percent of female teenagers reported that condoms were the most commonly used form of contraception, and the next most common method was withdrawal (65%) and the pill (53%).
With teen pregnancy rates at an all-time low, this new CDC report reveals that there have been significant changes to teen sexual activity over the last three decades.
