Something that really irks me about statistics

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
Mississippi passes New Mexico for highest teen birth rate in 2006

Here's what really pisses me off about this. The teen birth rate is tracked at births per 1000 for girls ages 15 through 19. Now, it seems to me that a pregnant 19-year-old woman, who is legally old enough to vote, get married without a parent's permission, consent to sex in any state, open a bank account, etc. is NOT the same as a pregnant 15-year-old girl. In fact, I would venture to guess that looping 18- and 19-year-olds into the mix really boosts the numbers. How many people get married right after high school, have a baby and thus have a "teen birth"?

I think the statistic should count girls ages 13 through 17.
 

BlurOfSerenity

New Member
agreed, it should be during the teen years in which one is still a child... since that's the part that people get all up in arms about, and the implication of the thing!
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
Graduate high school, join the Army, go oversaes, meet interesting people, kill them, have sex, get married (it's the new world order of things), have a baby & get called a teenage mother as you enter college.

Figures can lie & liars can figure.
 

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
They'd have to rewrite the terms.
Then again, they made up the term 'tweens', so something for late-teens.
 

spike

New Member
What's the definition of teen? I think it has something to do with the number of years you've been alive.
 

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
But yet, girls ages thirTEEN and fourTEEN aren't counted in the teen pregnancy statistics.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
It'll look far less horrific when 60% of your field is unable to conceive, due to age.
 
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