TEENAGERS across the United Kingdom are having sex younger than their European counterparts, according to World Health Organisation figures to be published tomorrow.

Four out of 10 girls in England have underage sex, which is more than in any other European country - and younger than their male counterparts.

The WHO report, to be published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, shows that 39.9% of girls in England admitted having sex aged 15 or younger, the highest of any of the 24 European countries surveyed. The second highest rate is in Wales, at 38.5%, with Scotland third with 34.1%.

The number of boys in the UK having sex before 16 - at 34.9 % - is also higher than every other European country apart from the Ukraine, where 47.1 % of teenagers claimed they had lost their virginity by the age of 15.

Kaye Wellings, an expert in reproductive health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “More than two-thirds of women in the 1950s had their first sexual experience with someone they were married or engaged to. In 2000, this was under 1%.”

At the same time, more than 15% of the teenagers in England who were sexually active admitted that they failed to use contraception.

Jill Kirby, director of the rightwing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, said: “It is depressing that so many young people are losing out on childhood by becoming parents too soon, and this becomes a vicious circle because there is a greater likelihood that the family will break up.”

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