A study of 210 adolescent girls in the eastern region of Uganda found that 70% had had sex before the age of 14 -- in many cases with men up to 20 years older. They thought that older men would provide them with economic security; they also had an AIDS incidence five times that of boys in their age group. A USA survey in the early 1990s found that 18 percent of boys and 6 percent of girls were having intercourse before the age of 14.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute reported in 1998 for the USA: (1) The younger a girl is at the time of first intercourse, the more likely she is to report her first experience as non-voluntary; (2) Each year almost one million teenagers -- 11% of all those 15-19 and 21% of those who have had sexual intercourse -- become pregnant; (3) Amount sexually active teenagers, about 8% of 14-year-olds, 18% of 15 to 17-year olds and 22% of 18 and 19 year-olds become pregnant each year; (4) A majority of teenagers who give birth (83%) are much more likely to come from poor families; (5) Nationally, 8 in 10 teen pregancies are unplanned, accounting for about one-fourth of all accidental pregnancies; (6) A sexually active teenager who does not use contraception has a 90% chance of pregnancy within one year; (7) Three-fourths of teenagers use some method of contraception -- usually a condom -- the first time they have sex; (8) While the likelihood of having intercourse increases steadily with age, about 1 in 5 teenagers do not have intercourse.