The United Kingdom stands out among Western European countries for its childbearing at very young ages (during adolescence). The level of teenage fertility in the UK being double of that observed in France.

The object of this presentation is firstly to present trends in teenage fertility in the two countries over the last four decades. Secondly, we identify recent teenage mothers in the British and French censuses in order to study their sociodemographic profiles.

Finally, we aim to see whether the vastly differing levels of teenage fertility observed in the two countries can be explained by differing sexual and contraceptive behaviours by studying early adolescent British and French teens using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey.

John Tomkinson is a PhD student at the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) and the Université de Strasbourg, France and a visitor in the School of Demography.