Teenage pregnancies have fallen to the lowest level ever recorded, although a regional breakdown reveals figures have started to creep up in the North West.
There were 5,740 pregnancies in girls aged under 18 in the three months to June last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, down nine per cent from the same period last year.
The teenage pregnancy rate, a more accurate measure of trends, stood at 23.3 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 17, compared with 25.4 in 2013. At its peak in 1999, the rate was 33.3 per 1000.
Despite the falling figures, there are areas of England where the number of teenage pregnancies has started heading up again.
Tyne and Wear and the North West say their rates have risen during the last year. Falls in highly populated areas of London and the South East have kept the national figures falling.
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Teenage pregnancy is closely linked to deprivation. St Helens in Merseyside has the highest teenage pregnancy rate at 48.6 per 1,000 women, almost double the national rate. Kingston-upon-Thames has the lowest rate at 5.9, while the figure is 8.5 in Wokingham and 10 in Herefordshire.
Experts said the fall was in part due to better advice around contraception and improved family planning services for young women.