Official Statistics

Sexual and reproductive health profiles: statistical commentary, February 2026

Published 3 February 2026

Applies to England

What’s new

Indicators in the Sexual and Reproductive Health profile have been updated with data about the prescribing and use of contraceptives in England. The data includes prescriptions and activity undertaken by primary care and dedicated sexual and reproductive health services in England. The latest data covers 2024. 

Abortions data for 2022 and 2023 has also been added to the profile. Further information about Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2022 and Abortion statistics for England and Wales: 2023 was given when the data was published. 

Introduction 

Local authorities are required to commission comprehensive open access sexual and reproductive health services, including free testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Services should also offer advice on and reasonable access to a broad range of contraception, and advice on preventing unplanned pregnancy.  

Contraception is also provided in hospital outpatient clinics or in primary care (GP practices) and can be purchased over the counter at a pharmacy or in other retail settings. 

Contraceptive types 

Different methods of contraception are available from these settings. There is no single dataset which captures all methods of contraception across all services which provide contraception. The Sexual and Reproductive Health Activity Data Set (SRHAD) consists of anonymised patient-level data, covering contraception prescribing at sexual health services. Prescribing data for primary care is available from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA).

Methods of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) prescribed to women include: 

• injectables: progestogen-only injections which typically last 8 to 12 weeks 
• implants: under the skin progestogen-only implants which last 3 to 5 years 
• intrauterine devices: progestin-releasing or copper devices, effective for 3 to 7 years depending on type 

Methods of short-acting reversible contraception prescribed to women include: 

• combined oral contraceptives (COCs) which contain oestrogen and progestogen, one of the most used pills by those starting contraception for the first time 

• progestogen-only pills (POPs) which contain only progestogen are also called the mini-pill and require precise daily timing for effectiveness 

An increase in the provision of LARC is used as an indicator of wider access to the range of possible contraceptive methods which should also lead to a reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy. Although injectables are classified as LARCs, they are counted separately as they rely on timely repeat visits within the year and so have a higher failure rate than the other LARC methods. However, injections are easily administered and do not require the resources and training that other LARC methods require. 

Since LARC methods are not available over the counter, the 2 data sources combined provide a relatively comprehensive measure of total LARC prescribing in England. Short-acting contraceptives are, however, also available over the counter and any obtained through this route are not included in the data presented here.

Main findings 

The overall prescribing rate for LARC, excluding injectables, in 2024 decreased slightly and remains below levels seen before the pandemic. The prescribing rate for short-acting contraception in both primary care and sexual health services also decreased this year.   

There was variation in LARC prescribing across England with rates of prescribing in the least deprived areas more than 30% higher than the most deprived. Among regions, the highest rates were in the South West and South East.  

The prescribing of short acting contraceptives in primary care, which is the majority of prescriptions, also follows a similar pattern with deprivation. The rate of young men and women aged under 25 using sexual health services decreased slightly in 2024 and remains below levels seen before the pandemic. This attendance rate provides a measure of access to specialist contraceptive services and is a proxy for the reach of services targeted at young people for prevention of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy.

LARC use, excluding injectables 

The overall use of LARC, excluding injectables, has slightly decreased to a rate of 40.0 per 1,000 population in 2024 (43.1 in 2023) (see figure 1). This remains significantly lower than before the pandemic (49.2 per 1,000 in 2019). There was a decrease in the prescribing rate by primary care, from 25.3 in 2023 to 23.7 per 1,000 in 2024. The prescribing rate by sexual health services has also decreased from 17.8 in 2023 to 16.3 per 1,000 in 2024. 

Rates of LARC prescribing, excluding injectables, were lowest in London (see figure 2). For 2024, the rate of LARC prescribing, excluding injectables, was lower in the most deprived local authorities (32.5 per 1,000) than the least deprived (50.0 per 1,000) (see figure 3).  

Figure 1: rate of prescribing for LARC, excluding injectables, in England, 2016 to 2024

Source: OHID analysis of sexual health services data from SRHAD and primary care data from NHS BSA

Figure 2: rate of prescribing for LARC, excluding injectables, in England by region, 2024

Source: OHID analysis of sexual health services data from SRHAD and primary care data from NHS BSA

Figure 3: rate of prescribing for LARC, excluding injectables, in England by deprivation, 2024

Source: OHID analysis of sexual health services data from SRHAD and primary care data from NHS BSA

Short-acting reversible contraceptive and injectable contraceptive use 

The prescribing rates for short-acting combined reversible contraceptives from primary care and sexual health services are analysed separately. The data is not combined as it may contain duplicate records nor does it account for contraceptives obtained from pharmacies or over-the-counter. However, the majority are prescribed in primary care.

Rates of prescribing for short-acting combined oral contraceptives by primary care have continued to decrease from 105.7 in 2023 to 94.5 per 1,000 in 2024. A slight decrease was also observed from 9.0 to 8.3 per 1,000 when prescribed by sexual health services in the same period. However, rates remained substantially lower than they were in 2019 before the pandemic: almost 40% lower when prescribed by primary care (see figure 4) and almost 50% lower when prescribed by sexual health services (see figure 5).

The rates of prescribing for progestogen-only pills and injectable contraceptives from sexual health services followed a similar pattern to that of combined oral contraceptives from sexual health services: a decrease during the pandemic, an increase in following years but a slight decrease in 2024 (see figure 5). Rates of prescribing by primary care continued to decline steadily (see figure 4).

Figure 4: rate of prescribing for short-acting reversible and injectable contraceptives by primary care services in England, 2016 to 2024

Source: OHID analysis of primary care data from NHS BSA

Figure 5: rate of prescribing for short-acting reversible and injectable contraceptives from sexual and reproductive health services in England, 2016 to 2024

Source: OHID analysis of sexual health services data from SRHAD 

The rate of prescribing by primary care for short-acting combined oral contraceptives was significantly lower in the most deprived local authorities (74.5 per 1,000) than the least deprived local authorities (115.6 per 1,000) (see figure 6). A similar pattern was seen for progestogen-only pills (see figure 7) but the opposite pattern was observed for injectable contraceptives (see figure 8). 

Figure 6: rate of prescribing for combined oral contraceptives by primary care in England by deprivation, 2024

Source: OHID analysis of primary care data from NHS BSA 

Figure 7: rate of prescribing of progestogen-only pills by primary care in England by deprivation, 2024

Source: OHID analysis of primary care data from NHS BSA 

Figure 8: rate of prescribing for injectable contraceptives by primary care in England by deprivation, 2024

Source: OHID analysis of primary care data from NHS BSA 

Attendance at sexual health services 

The attendance rate for women under 25 at sexual health services was 95.6 per 1,000 population in 2024. It has decreased slightly from 102.4 in 2023 and remains below the pre-pandemic level of 133.4 per 1,000 in 2019. The attendance rate for men under 25 at sexual health services has also decreased to 12.4 per 1,000 population in 2024 from 14.2 in 2023. This remains below the level of 20.0 per 1,000 before the pandemic in 2019. 

In 2024, for both men and women, there was regional variation in attendance rates, with the highest rates in the North West (118.3 per 1,000 women) and the East Midlands (19.0 per 1,000 men) and lowest in the West Midlands (51.1 per 1,000 women) and North East (6.6 per 1,000 men). 

For further information or queries about this update, please contact pha-ohid@dhsc.gov.uk.