Fertility, pregnancy outcomes, and regional variation trends during 1975 and 1987 for Canada is given using data from the registry of live births and information from therapeutic abortions. Teenage pregnancy rate has been defined s the numbers of pregnancy/1000 females between the age of 15-19 at the time of pregnancy. It was observed that the number and rate of teenage pregnancy had declined by 24% during this period. The average decline was greatest in the period 1981 to 1987. However, older teenagers (18-19 years) contributed 63% of the 36,694 pregnancies and 58% of the 13,501 induced abortions in 1987. Also, the average annual fertility rate for older teenagers was 3 times greater than younger teenagers during the 1975-1987 period. In general, teenage pregnancy rates were highest in the Western province. However, both abortion and teenage pregnancy rates were lower in Canada than in the US. Internationally, the Canadian teenage pregnancy rate was closest to Norway, lower than England, Wales, and Czechoslovakia and considerably lower than in the US. The decline in teenage fertility rate can be primarily explained by the increased age in women at 1st birth. Although data is limited, it is speculated that the availability and accessibility to contraceptives, knowledge and sexual behavior are significant factors that contributed to the decline in observed pregnancy rates.
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Wadhera et al. (1990) studied this question.