A rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unplanned pregnancies are top of mind for the World Health Organization after it released a new report showing condom use among adolescents has been on an “alarming decline” in the past decade. The data, published Thursday , comes from a survey of more than 242,000 15-year-olds across 42 countries between 2014 and 2022. Of those sexually active 15-year-olds surveyed, one in five boys and 15 per cent of girls reported having sex in 2022 — a number that the report notes has not grown since 2014.
But while that number has stayed stable, the report showed that the boys reported using condoms 61 per cent of the time, down from 70 per cent in 2014, while the girls reported using them 57 per cent of the time compared to 63 per cent. The report noted 30 per cent of adolescents reported not using either a condom or a contraceptive pill in their last sexual encounter. In Canada, just 63 per cent of girls and 61 per cent of boys reported using a condom in their last sexual intercourse.
“Are we providing them enough access so that they don’t have barriers in their way?” Shamin Mohamed Jr., founder and president of LetsStopAIDS, told Global News. “I think there’s a wake-up call that’s needed not just by our political parties, but us as a community to come together and say we want our youth to be best informed, to make the best decisions with the tools they have.
” The “alarming decline” found by the WHO in condom .