Introduction

Teenage pregnancies are often unplanned (over half resulted in abortion in 2022), resulting in avoidable costs and challenges for young women. Research indicates that teenage motherhood is linked to several poorer outcomes including lower educational attainment, which can limit future career opportunities and earning potential. Teenage mothers are also more likely to experience single parenting and poverty, which can create a cycle of disadvantage that is difficult to break and increased mental health risks, including higher rates of depression and anxiety. The infants of teenage mothers are at an elevated risk of mortality, and those who survive often face greater risks of poverty, poor housing conditions, accidents, and behavioural issues. These challenges can have long-term impacts on the child’s development and well-being.

National conceptions data was updated on 26 June 2026, which included data up to the year 2023.

National rates

Teenage conception rates in England have continued their long-term decline and remain historically low. In 2023, the England conception rate for women aged under 18 was 12.8 per 1,000 population*, a reduction from 2022 and still below pre-pandemic levels, indicating that the reductions achieved over the past decade have largely been sustained despite COVID-19 disruption. The combined England and Wales rate in 2023 was 13.0 per 1,000 population. In the same year, under 18 conception rates within the local authority areas of England and Wales** ranged from 4.2 per 1,000 population in Wokingham to 30.7 per 1,000 in Middlesbrough.

Source: ONS

The interactive map below, allows the user to select different local authority areas to view conception rates for women aged under 18 years, by local authority area during 2023. Lower values are represented by light green colours and darker colours displaying higher rates. The pale blue colour of the East Riding area in the map indicates that its conception rate in 2023 (16.5 per 1,000) was amongst the upper half of values within England and Wales. Neighbouring local authority, Hull, is much darker in colour on the map indicating a high rate (at 27.3 per 1,000 Hull was the 4th highest local authority rate within England and Wales).

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* denominator population is females aged 15-17
** rates were not available for 22 local authority areas due to low numbers, therefore some areas in reality will have much lower rates than Wokingham

East Riding local authority

As mentioned above, the East Riding 2023 under 18 conception rate was 16.5 per 1,000 population, which ranked the local authority 50th highest out of the 159 local authorities (i.e. within the top third of values) that reported an actual numeric rate. Since 2009, the East Riding rate has largely decreased year on year (as shown in the chart below), however, in the last 2 years the rate has increased again.

In 2023, the East Riding overtook both the equivalent rates for Yorkshire and Humber Region (16.2 per 1,000 population) and England (12.8 per 1,000 population). The East Riding 2023 rate was higher than the Yorkshire and Humber region for the first time in 25 years.

Source: OHID Fingertips/ONS

The annual count of under 18 conceptions is displayed in the chart below. It shows that numbers have generally decreased since 2009 (214 conceptions) but the 2023 count of 95 under 18 conceptions was the highest since 2015 and was a 46% increase over 2022.

Source: OHID Fingertips/ONS

Rates within the communities of the East Riding

Rates of under 18 conceptions by East Riding middle super output area (MSOA) are also provided by ONS, the latest being for the 3 year pooled period 2021-23. Please note that for the publication of this data ONS have rounded the MSOA counts of conceptions to the nearest 5, which can have a major impact on the reported rate per 1,000 population for an area.

In this period there were in the region of 220 conceptions for this age group in the East Riding. Due to the small numbers involved at this geography, it is not possible to reproduce all of the data here, with rates of 9 of the 43 East Riding MSOAs being withheld, and, further warnings about the potential unreliability of 34 of the rest of the East Riding MSOAs.

The chart below displays the range of under 18 conception rates throughout the MSOAs of the East Riding. The MSOAs with the top 3 rates of under 18 conceptions were located within Bridlington, headed by Bridlington Hilderthorpe which reported a rate of 56 per 1,000 population (the 21st highest MSOA rate within England and Wales). When ONS later released the actual numbers of conceptions by MSOA for England and Wales (which is not in the public domain and not possible to show here), the Bridlington Hiderthorpe under 18 conception rate was actually the 9th highest MSOA rate within England and Wales.