Is there a particular reason as to why New England altogether has the lowest teen pregnancy rate?

33 comments

1. New England is pretty well known for good education and good healthcare. I’m sure that helps.

2. Access to birth control and education is better at reducing teen pregnancy & motherhood than access to abortion. Like “use birth control” might seem obvious to some but large portions of the population use abstinence-only education and it flat out doesn’t work. I even remember reading a source that abstinence-only education leads to people having sex earlier with more partners.

3. Better education; less poverty; other such demographics. The rest of the US is pretty much cancer compared to New England if you ask me.

4. There is an interesting overlap between low teen pregnancy and not attending church. For example, New Hampshire has both the lowest teen pregnancy and lowest church attendance. I would suspect that in states with higher teen pregnancy, religious beliefs curtain good sex education, teen birth control, and so on.

   [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/compare/attendance-at-religious-services/by/state/](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/compare/attendance-at-religious-services/by/state/)

5. Better education, better healthcare, culture of actually giving a damn.

6. New England in general has really good statistics. Education, income, low crime, access to healthcare, etc.

7. It is because of our puritan values and morality.

8. Education goes a long way.

9. A relatively secular world view, solid economy, and decent education system cut down on a lot of problems. I’m.not even a little bit surprised to learn this.

10. I find people from the northeast to be a little neurotic and unable to enjoy the small things in life like unprotected underage sex.

11. New England is also lowest in religiosity, which is likely related.

12. Highest spread of wealth and education around the population.

    Shocker – when someone has future job / education options and they know what sperm does from science class, they’re more likely to use protection.

13. New England is the best educated place in the country, perhaps in the world, and despite its liberal politics it’s pretty socially conservative in many ways.

14. In the United States, laws vary widely from state to state. States like Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont are extremely liberal, fund education very well, and have a strong social safety net. Their teachers and healthcare providers are among the best paid in the country. NH and ME are not far behind.

    States like Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia on the other hand — let’s say they have different priorities.

15. We keep Gloucester as it’s own region for statistical purposes.

16. Probably has decent sex ed and healthcare.

17. On top of the other comments mentioning education and access we should also consider how many outdoor activities there are to do here in New England. There are so many winter activities and there are plenty to enjoy during spring summer and fall as well. Basically year round outdoor activities.

    Also consider the family income levels and the after school activities that are available. So there is definitely an economic component to that.

    When teens don’t have much to do… then you know, sex is free.

18. The majority of New England population is in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Both of which are relatively progressive states with good education (including sex education).

19. I’d say because education is great, plus access to healthcare is also great. Growing up in CT then going to Louisiana for college, it was a noticeable difference in my education vs my Louisiana peers. My friend moved to Illinois for college and noticed the same thing, especially sex education. His girl friends would call me up for sex advice and education — for example one asked me “the woman has to orgasm in order to get pregnant, right?” I said “our birth rate would drastically decrease, no” lol.

20. New England has pretty progressive education and healthcare systems, which means sex is viewed more positively and sex education therefore is better.

21. New England has pretty progressive education and healthcare systems, which means sex is viewed more positively and sex education therefore is better.

22. Education.

23. Education and healthcare.

24. I dunno about NE, but I went to school with a high pregnancy and they turned it around by providing better sex education, health resources, and a planned parenthood near the school.

25. Education, money, the access to services that comes with density.

    Same as basically every other metric.

26. Basically money. New England has high incomes, good public school systems with comprehensive sex education, and accessible healthcare.

    Not everything’s perfect in New England. They’re absolutely shit when it comes to housing affordability. But education they do right. Like we hear so much about failing US schools, but if you considered Massachusetts a country, their schools rank among the best in the world.

27. I think it’s funny how every time a New Englander brings up the quality of education here, we get dismissed as being smug elitists, but when questions like this pop up the first thing everyone points to is the quality of education.

28. Good education, high wealth, majority in power polically are not Bible beaters or republicans

29. How does it correlate with education level? It’s my understanding that the northeast has generally the best education systems. I’d expect those things to be pretty closely interrelated if that’s correct.

30. Better education, including little to no religious influence in education, so more kids have real sex education.

    Southern states, in particular, have higher rates of ‘abstinence only’ and other educational policies that have been shown to increase teen sexual activity, including unprotected sex and teen and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

    Another big factor is wealth in general. New England has lower poverty rates, and higher economic opportunity, meaning that kids grow up seeing more of a future in long-term planning.

31. Their teenagers fuck less.

32. Access to birth control and good education. I would say better access (or at least more secure) to abortion care as well, but I don’t have statistics to say if that’s a real factor or not. But I definitely feel like I got more sex ed than just straight abstinence talks that are given in southern states

33. Education education education.