Contraceptive and condom use
Ethnic differences
Reported use of contraception and condoms varied among young people of different ethnic groups.
Of those who were sexually active, New Zealand European secondary students were most likely to report always using contraception (71 percent, compared to fewer than half – 45 percent – of Pacific secondary students).
| Ethnic group | Always use contraception |
|---|---|
| % (95% CI) |
|
| New Zealand European | 71 |
| (68, 73) | |
| Maori | 54 |
| (50, 58) | |
| Pacific | 45 |
| (38,51) | |
| Asian | 54 |
| (45, 63) | |
| Other | 60 |
| (50, 69) |
Source: Youth2000 Survey.
Note: “95%CI” (95 percent confidence interval) signifies that there is a 95 percent chance that the true value falls within this range. If the respective confidence intervals (in brackets) do not overlap, the difference between rates is likely to be statistically significant.
Note
We encourage you to be cautious about drawing conclusions from comparisons between ethnic groups. Apparent differences (in unadjusted data) between ethnic groups can often be explained by factors other than ethnicity per se, such as the different age, sex, geographical and socioeconomic distributions of different ethnic populations. In addition, datasets vary in the way that they collect and record ethnicity data.
