More girls in the U.S. are remaining virgins until their late teens and into their 20s, with the biggest rates of decline among African-Americans and Hispanics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
More than half of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 -- 57% -- reported that they had never had vaginal intercourse in the latest CDC survey covering 2006-2010, up from 49% in 1995.
For the first time since the CDC began gathering data on teen sex practices, the percentage of teen girls who reported having never had sex was the roughly the same for African-Americans, whites, and Hispanics.
Racial disparities persist, however, in the number of teen girls using the most effective forms of birth control, including hormonal pills, patches, rings, implants, injections, and IUDs with or without condoms. Roughly 60% of sexually active teens reported using these forms of birth control between 2006 and 2010, up from 47% in 1995.
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