TEENAGE pregnancies were at a record low in Newport for 2020, according to the Office of National Statistics.

There were 39 conceptions to girls aged under 18 in the city in 2020, compared to 53 in 2019.

It is the lowest amount of teenage pregnancies in Newport since records began in 1998.

In England and Wales, there were 12,576 pregnancies for girls aged under 18 in 2020.

This means that there was an average of 13.1 pregnancies per 1,000 girls.

Despite the record low amount of teenage pregnancies, Newport still has a slightly higher proportion compared to the rest of England and Wales.

In Newport, the conception rate for girls aged under 18 was 14.9 per 1,000 girls.

Across the rest of Gwent, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent had higher rates of teen pregnancies, with conception rates of 16.9 and 15.1 respectively.

Monmouthshire and Caerphilly had much lower conception rates, with Monmouthshire recording a rate of 7.3 while Caerphilly had a rate of 8.4.

In total, there were 116 pregnancies in girls aged under 18 in Gwent in 2020.

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The various Covid lockdowns have been touted as contributing to the decrease in teenage pregnancies across the country, though rates hve been dropping since 2007.

British Pregnancy Advisory Service spokeswoman Katherine O’Brien said: "Lockdown restrictions which prevented socialising with anyone other than members of your own household will have had a greater impact on women in younger age groups, who will be less likely to have been cohabiting with partners."

Conceptions were down across all ages in Newport in 2020, with 2,313 conceptions to women aged between 15 and 44 compared to 2,388 in 2019.

They were among 817,515 conceptions nationally, marginally down from 821,089 the year prior.

Dr James Tucker, head of health and life events analysis at the ONS, said: "Provisional births data indicate that 2021 births actually increased, but that this varied over the year.

"The first half of 2021 saw a decrease in births, all of which would have been conceived in 2020 when conceptions decreased; while the second half of 2021 saw an increase in births, which related to conceptions at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021."