SOUTHAMPTON has one of the highest rates of schoolgirl pregnancies in the country.

Almost 100 under-16s got pregnant between 2011 and 2013 – with nearly half of them deciding to have an abortion.

According to new figures released by the Office of National Statistics, the city is in the top ten for the highest number of teen pregnancies, with an average of one in 100 teens getting pregnant every three years.

The study looks specifically at girls between 13 and 15 years old and reveals that 97 teens were pregnant between 2011 and 2013.

It comes just months after ONS figures showed that the amount of teen pregnancies in Hampshire had halved in a decade.

But those statistics referred to under-18s, not 13 to 15 years, and showed 495 were pregnant in 2013, with 129 in Southampton.

This data also showed that Redbridge, Millbrook, Freemantle, Woolston and Bitterne had higher under-18 conception rates than the England average of 27 per 1,000.

The study looking at 13-15-year-olds analysed Southampton separately to the county and 308 Hampshire schoolgirls were pregnant from 2011-2013.

Nationally, according to the latest figures, over the three years there were 16,071 underage pregnancies for 13 – 15-year-olds in England and Wales.

It comes a year after health bosses in the city launched a major drive to cut the number of teen mums in Southampton.

Last year, director of public health Andrew Mortimer backed a report outlining a mission for health and council chiefs to tackle teen pregnancies.

The report, which was written by Helen Cruickshank and Tim Davis from Southampton City Council, said: “Whilst the teenage pregnancy rate has also fallen in Southampton, the rate of decline has been lower.

“The city remains a hotspot for having significantly higher rates than the England average and the South East region.

“Many teenage conceptions are both unplanned and unwanted. Becoming a teenage parent has a high correlation with a range of poor outcomes for both children and their mothers.

“Southampton has poor sexual health and high teenage pregnancy rates compared to the South East and England. Without a sustained focus on teenage pregnancy, there is a high risk that the decline in under 18 conceptions seen in recent years may falter.

“This would risk significant social and financial costs for the individuals, their families and the city as a whole in the longer term.”

The city’s Health and Wellbeing board has been tasked with working with social care services and cabinet members to reach out to schools, GPs and Solent NHS Trust to make sure youngsters have access to high quality sex and relationship education and contraception.

Chair of the board Cllr Dave Shields, said: “It doesn’t come as a total shock. We have to bear in mind that these are over the span of three years and I would like to think that we have improved going into 2015.

“Reducing teenage pregnancy rates over the long term remains a key priority for our council and during the past year we have worked with our partners to reduce the risk of the factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy which has included making it easier for teenagers to access contraception and encouraging schools to provide comprehensive sex and relationship education.”