According to the Governmental data for 2008, it was revealed that the pregnancy rate among girls under 18 has declined up to 4.5% in Bristol, but the figures have not been able to meet the key target set by the Government for this year as Ministers had intended to reduce the rate to 50% against the figures of the year 1998 when it was almost 47 conceptions per 1,000 girls of 15 to 17 years of age. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales reduced by 4% nationwide.

Supporting the Government's record, morning Schools Secretary Ed Balls said, "It was a really ambitious target - it was 50% fall. I think it was right to set an ambitious target and it is going to be really hard to make that amount of fall."

The current figure figures are 40.4 per 1,000 girls in 2008 with a 13% dip against the baseline figure and a 3% decrease since 2007. 6% fall in the pregnancy rates of under-16s in England was recorded between 2007 and 2008, decreasing from 8.3 to 7.8 per 1,000 girls. The highest and lowest pregnancy rates in England are that of North East with 49 conceptions per 1,000 girls and East of England with 31.4 per 1,000 respectively.

Clare Campion-Smith, Bristol City Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People's Councilor, said, "We hope this drop in conception rates is the start of a downward trend for Bristol. It is certainly a step in the right direction, but we need to make sure we don't take the pressure off".