According to a new report by the NC State Center for Statistics, the teen pregnancy rate fell 12% in 2011. 

The data says about 44 out of every 1,000 girls in our state aged 15 to 19 became pregnant last year. That’s the lowest level in the state’s history. In the Triad, Forsyth and Guilford Counties are faring even better than the state rate.

“The teen pregnancy rate fell 12.5 percent in Forsyth County last year and in Guilford County it fell 15 percent. In both cases they are outpacing the state by a little bit and that is great news for Forsyth and Guilford County,” says Elizabeth Finley, Director of Strategic Communications for the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention campaign of North Carolina.

Finley says racial and ethnic disparities are also shrinking. The number of White, Hispanic and Black teen pregnancies in the state all dropped last year. According to Finley, there are several positive outcomes as a result of the decline in teen pregnancies.

“The abortion rate fell more than 20 percent and the birth rate fell quite a bit as well. When we talk about fewer pregnancies, we are also talking about more young people who have an opportunity to complete an education, get themselves on the path to economic self-sufficiency and who have a much brighter more opportunistic future than if they had children at a young age they were ready,”  says Finley.

According to the report, Richmond County had the state’s highest rate of teen pregnancy falling only 9 percent last year. Meanwhile, Orange County had the lowest rate of teen pregnancies in North Carolina for 2011, with about 13 teen pregnancies for every 1,000 girls in our state aged 15 to 19.