Statistics

Suicide

• 14.8% of high school students in 2001 made a plan to commit suicide.


• Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youths ages 15 to 20.


• Males ages 15 to 19 are five times as likely to commit suicide as women.


• The strongest risk factors for suicide in youth are depression, substance abuse and aggressive behavior.


• Suicide has ranked among the 10 leading causes of death since 1975.


• In 2001, 19% of high school students considered suicide.


• For every two victims of homicide in the U.S. there are three deaths from suicide.


• 8.8% of high school students attempted suicide in 2001.


• Every 15 minutes a suicide occurs in the United States.

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Violence

• 9.5% students were hurt as a result of dating violence in 2001.


• Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds overall.


• 17.4% of students carried a weapon to school in 2001.


• 33% of students were in a physical fight in 2001.


• In 1999, 4,998 youths ages 15 to 24 were murdered - an average of 14 per day.

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Drug Use

• In 2001, an estimated 8.1 million (3.6 percent) of Americans aged 12 or older had tried "Ecstasy" at least once in their lifetime.


• In 2002, 53% of twelfth graders reported having used an illicit drug in their lifetime.


• Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. In 2001, it was used by 76 percent of current illicit drug users.


• Among youths aged 12 to 17, the rate of current illicit drug use was higher for boys (11.4 percent) than for girls (10.2 percent).

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Eating Disorders

• Three percent of adolescent and adult women and 1% of men have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge-eating disorder.


• A young woman with anorexia is 12 times more likely to die than other women her age without anorexia.


• Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder are diseases that affect the mind and body simultaneously.


• About half of those with anorexia or bulimia have a full recovery, 30% have a partial recovery, and 20% have no substantial improvement.


• Forty percent of fourth graders report that they diet either "very often" or "sometimes."


• More than 5 million Americans experience eating disorders.


• In the United States, conservative estimates indicate that after puberty, 5-10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men are struggling with eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or borderline conditions.


• Between 10% and 15% of those diagnosed with bulimia nervosa are men.


• Fifteen percent of young women have substantially disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.


• Approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are girls and women.


• Approximately 80% of bulimia nervosa patients are female.


• Anorexia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric diagnoses in young women.


• Between 1-2% of American women suffer from anorexia nervosa.


• Bulimia nervosa affects 1-3% of middle and high school girls and 1-4% of college age women.


• Anorexia nervosa typically appears in early to mid-adolescence.

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Impaired Driving

• It is estimated that more than 20,000 lives have been saved by minimum drinking age laws since 1975.


• Motor vehicle crashes remain the number one cause of death among youth ages 15 to 20. There were 6,131 youth motor vehicle deaths in 2000.


• Although there are more youth fatalities during the week, the percentage of alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes is higher on the weekends. In 2000, 1,319 of 2,776 weekend fatalities were alcohol-related while 1,015 of 3,602 weekday fatalities were alcohol-related.


• The highest number of youth motor vehicle fatalities occurs in the summer. In 2000, there were 664 fatalities in July.


• In 2000, there were 2,339 alcohol-related fatalities among youth ages 15-20.

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Underage Drinking

• Individuals who begin drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to become alcohol dependent than those who begin drinking at age 21.


• More than five million high schoolers binge drink at least once a month.


• Four out of every five (80%) students have consumed alcohol (more than a few sips) by the end of high school.


• The prevalence of lifetime alcohol abuse is greatest for those who begin drinking at age 14.


• 83 percent of adults who drink had their first drink of alcohol before age 21.


• One third of sixth and ninth graders obtain alcohol from their own homes.


• Two-thirds of twelfth graders report having been drunk.


• The gender gap in alcohol consumption that for generations separated girls and boys has disappeared among younger teens: male and female ninth graders are just as likely to drink (40 percent vs. 41 percent) and to binge drink (22 percent vs. 20 percent).


• Children cite other people's homes as the most common setting for drinking.

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Sex, Teen Pregnancy, STDs, HIV/AIDS

Teen Pregnancy

• The teen birth rate has declined slowly but steadily from 1991 to 2001 with an overall decline of 26 percent for those aged 15 to 19.


• Nearly four in 10 young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of 20-nearly one million a year Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried teens.


• One of every 3 girls has had sex by age 16, 2 out of 3 by age 18. Two of 3 boys have had sex by age 18.


• Fewer than half of high school students have had sex.


• Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, (only one-third receive a high school diploma) and more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare).


• The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually.


• A majority of both girls and boys who are sexually active wish they had waited. Eight in ten girls and six in ten boys say they wish they had waited until they were older to have sex.


• The younger a teenaged girl is when she has sex for the first time, the more likely she is to have had unwanted or non-voluntary sex. Close to four in ten girls who had first intercourse at 13 or 14 report it was either non-voluntary or unwanted.

STDs

• Teens have higher rates of gonorrhea than do sexually active men and women aged 20-44.


• Every year 3 million teens--about 1 in 4 sexually active teens-get a Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD).


• Some studies show that up to 15% of sexually active teenage women are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), many with the type of HPV that is linked to cervical cancer.


• Chlamydia is more common among teens than among older men and women.

HIV/AIDS

• Twenty-five percent of U.S. high school students said that they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they last engaged in sexual activity.


• Half of all new infections are thought to occur in people under 25.


• Almost 50% of teachers who teach about HIV/AIDS reported spending only one or two class periods on the topic.


• In a recent survey, 87% of young Americans said they do not believe they are at risk for HIV infection.


• Each year 3,000 adolescents contract sexually transmitted diseases, which is about one in four sexually experienced teens.


• Young Americans between the ages of 13 and 24 are still contracting HIV at the rate of 2 per hour.

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Last dated 10-21-03