NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Center for Health Statistics

Use of Emergency Contraception Among Women 

Aged 15–44: United States, 2006–2010

Kimberly Daniels, Ph.D.; Jo Jones, Ph.D.; and Joyce Abma, Ph.D.

Key findings 

Data from the 2006–2010 

National Survey of Family 

Growth

• In 2006–2010, among 

sexually experienced women 

aged 15–44, roughly one in nine 

(11% or 5.8 million) women 

had ever used emergency 

contraception, up from 4.2% in 

2002.

• Most women who had ever 

used emergency contraception 

had done so once (59%) or 

twice (24%).

• Young adult women aged 

20–24 were most likely to 

have ever used emergency 

contraception; about one in four 

had done so (23%).

• Almost 1 in 5 never-married 

women (19%), 1 in 7 cohabiting 

women (14%), and 1 in 20 

currently or formerly married 

women (5.7%) had ever used 

emergency contraception.

• About one in two women 

reported using emergency 

contraception because of fear of 

method failure (45%), and about 

one in two reported use because 

they had unprotected sex (49%).

Emergency contraception can be used by women after sexual intercourse in an 

effort to prevent an unintended pregnancy. Roughly one-half of all pregnancies 

in the United States are unintended (1,2). The FDA first approved emergency 

contraceptive pills in 1998, but there is evidence of limited use of hormonal 

contraceptives for emergency contraception since the 1960s (3,4). Now, there 

are at least four brands of emergency contraceptive pills; most are available 

over the counter for women aged 17 and over (5). Although insertion of a 

copper intrauterine device can be used for emergency contraception (1,4), this 

report focuses only on emergency contraceptive pills. This report describes 

trends and variation in the use of emergency contraception and reasons for 

use among sexually experienced women aged 15–44 using the 2006–2010 

National Survey of Family Growth.

Keywords: unintended pregnancy • method failure • unprotected sex • National 

Survey of Family Growth

The percentage of sexually experienced women who have 

ever used emergency contraception has increased over time.

Figure 1. Percentage of sexually experienced women aged 15–44 who have ever used 

emergency contraception: United States, 1995, 2002, and 2006–2010, and frequency of use 

among women who have ever used emergency contraception, 2006–2010

1

Significant linear trend.

NOTES: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Access data table for Figure 1 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/

databriefs/db112_tables.pdf#1.

SOURCES: CDC/NCHS, National Survey of Family Growth, 1995, 2002, and 2006–2010.

Percentage ever used1 Frequency of use

2006–2010

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0

20

40

60

80

100 Three or

more times

Twice

Once

Percent

1995

1

2002

4

2006–2010

11

17

24

59
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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In 2006–2010, 11% (or 5.8 million) of sexually experienced women aged 15–44 had ever used 

emergency contraception, compared with 4.2% of women in 2002 and less than 1% in 1995 

(Figure 1). In 2006–2010, of women who had ever used emergency contraception, 59% had used 

it once, 24% had used it twice, and 17% had used it three or more times.

Ever-use of emergency contraception varied by age, marital status, 

Hispanic origin and race, and education.

Figure 2. Percentage of sexually experienced women aged 15–44 who have ever used emergency contraception, by 

selected characteristics: United States, 2006–2010

1

Significantly different from age group 20–24.

2

Significantly different from age group 30–44.

3

Significantly different from never-married women.

4

Significantly different from currently or formerly married women.

5

Significantly different from non-Hispanic black women.

6

Significant linear trend. 

NOTES: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Analyses of education are limited to women aged 22–44 at the time of interview. GED is General 

Educational Development high school equivalency diploma. Access data table for Figure 2 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db112_tables.pdf#2.

SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010.

0 5 10 15

Percent

20 25

Some college

Bachelor's degree or higher

High school or GED

Less than high school

Non-Hispanic black

Non-Hispanic white5

Hispanic5

Never married

Currently cohabiting3,4

Currently or formerly married3

30–441

25–291,2

20–242

15–191,2

Total

Age

Marital status

Hispanic origin and race

Education6

11

14

23

16

5

6

14

19

11

11

8

6

7

11

12

•	 Nearly one in four (23%) sexually experienced women aged 20–24 had ever used 

emergency contraception, compared with 16% of women aged 25–29 and 14% of women 

aged 15–19 (Figure 2). Older women had used emergency contraception less than younger 

women, with 5.0% of women aged 30–44 having ever used it.

•	 A larger proportion of never-married women had ever used emergency contraception (19%) 

compared with women who were cohabiting (14%) or currently or formerly married (5.7%).

•	 Non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women were more likely to have ever used emergency 

contraception (11%) compared with non-Hispanic black women (7.9%).
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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• Ever-use of emergency contraception increased with educational attainment—12% of 

women with a bachelor’s degree or higher and 11% of women with some college education 

had ever used it. This compares with 7.1% of women who had a high school diploma or 

GED and 5.5% of women with less than a high school education.

Nearly one-half of women who had ever used emergency contraception 

reported fear of method failure as a reason for use, but variation occurred 

by age, Hispanic origin and race, and education.

Figure 3. Use of emergency contraception due to fear of method failure among women aged 15–44 who had ever used 

emergency contraception, by selected characteristics: United States, 2006–2010

1

Significantly different from age group 15–19.

2

Significantly different from non-Hispanic white women.

3

Significant linear trend. 

NOTES: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Reasons for use are not mutually exclusive, women could provide more than one response; see 

“Data source and methods” section for details. Analyses of education are limited to women aged 22–44 years at time of interview. GED is General Educational 

Development high school equivalency diploma. Access data table for Figure 3 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db112_tables.pdf#3.

SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010.

Percent

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Bachelor's degree or higher

Some college

High school or GED

Less than high school

Non-Hispanic black2

Non-Hispanic white

Hispanic2

30–441

25–29

20–241

15–19

Total

Education3

Hispanic origin and race

Age

45

34

46

41

52

33

53

27

26

30

51

58

• A larger percentage of older women, those aged 30–44 (52%), reported using emergency 

contraception because they feared that the contraceptive method they used would not work, 

compared with 34% of women aged 15–19 (Figure 3). The difference between women aged 

15–19 and 25–29 was not statistically significant.

• A larger percentage of non-Hispanic white women (53%) reported emergency contraceptive 

use due to fear of method failure compared with non-Hispanic black (27%) and Hispanic 

women (33%).

• The percentage of women reporting use of emergency contraception because of fear of 

method failure increased with more education—from 26% of women with less than a high 

school education to 58% of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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Nearly one-half of women who had ever used emergency contraception 

gave having unprotected sex as a reason for use, but variation occurred 

across Hispanic origin and race, and education.

Figure 4. Use of emergency contraception due to unprotected sex among women aged 15–44 who had ever used 

emergency contraception, by selected characteristics: United States, 2006–2010

1

Significantly different from non-Hispanic white women.

2

Significant linear trend. 

NOTES: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Reasons for use are not mutually exclusive, women could provide more than one response; see 

“Data source and methods” section for details. Analyses of education are limited to women aged 22–44 years at the time of interview. GED is General Educational 

Development high school equivalency diploma. Access data table for Figure 4 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db112_tables.pdf#4.

SOURCE: CDC/NCHS, National Survey of Family Growth, 2006–2010.

Percent

49

47

51

50

45

59

43

60

62

53

48

43

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Total

Bachelor's degree or higher

Some college

High school or GED

Less than high school

Education2

Hispanic1

Non-Hispanic white

Non-Hispanic black1

Hispanic origin and race

30–44

25–29

20–24

15–19

Age

• The percentage of women in each age group reporting that they used emergency 

contraception because they had unprotected sex was similar, around 50% (Figure 4).

• Hispanic women (59%) and non-Hispanic black women (60%) more often reported using 

emergency contraception because they had unprotected sex compared with non-Hispanic 

white women (43%).

• The percentage of women reporting use of emergency contraception because of unprotected 

sex decreased with more education—from 62% of those with less than a high school 

education to 43% of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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Summary

In 2006–2010, one in nine sexually experienced women aged 15–44 had used emergency 

contraception at least once. The ever-use of emergency contraception was most common among 

women aged 20–24, those who never married, Hispanic or non-Hispanic white women, and those 

who attended college. Most women who had used emergency contraception had done so once or 

twice.

Among women who had ever used emergency contraception, nearly equal percentages of women, 

around 50%, reported having used it because of fear of method failure and because of unprotected 

sex. Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women and those with less education were more likely to 

have used emergency contraception because of unprotected sex, compared with women of other 

characteristics. Older women, non-Hispanic white women, and women with more education more 

often used emergency contraception because of fear of method failure, compared with women of 

other characteristics.

When looking at age differences, it should be kept in mind that not all women had access to 

emergency contraception during the earlier portion of their reproductive years. It was expected 

that older women would have used emergency contraception less frequently than younger women 

for reasons of both supply and demand: Emergency contraception was not FDA approved in their 

early reproductive years, and the use of sterilization as a contraceptive method increases with 

age, consequently decreasing the potential demand for emergency contraception (6). Additionally, 

differences across marital status and other groups presented here could be confounded by age; for 

instance, married women are on average older than never-married women.

Definitions

Education: Educational attainment at the time of interview, indicating the highest grade or degree 

finished. Analyses by education were limited to women aged 22–44 at the time of interview 

because large percentages of women aged 15–21 are still attending school. Using the full age 

range of 15–44 would misclassify many young women still attending school as having low 

educational attainment.

Emergency contraception: Methods that women can use after sexual intercourse in instances 

where a method of contraception was not used during intercourse, or if a woman thought the 

method that she and her partner used might fail to protect them from an unintended pregnancy. 

Emergency contraception includes emergency contraceptive pills and the insertion of a copper 

intrauterine device (IUD) by a medical provider (1,4,7); however, this report describes use only as 

was reported in response to the survey question described below. The 2006–2010 National Survey 

of Family Growth (NSFG) did not specifically ask about IUD use for emergency contraception.

Ever-use of emergency contraception: Similar questions were asked in each survey to measure 

ever-use of emergency contraception among women who had ever had sex; however, examples 

of brand names were added as more became available. In 1995, women were asked, “Have you 

ever used ‘morning after’ pills?” The 2002 survey question asked, “Have you ever used ‘morning 

after’ pills or emergency contraception?” The 2006–2010 NSFG asked, “Have you ever used 

emergency contraception, also known as ‘Plan B’ or ‘Preven’ or ‘Morning after’ pills?”
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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Frequency of use of emergency contraception: Women who reported ever using emergency 

contraception were asked, “How many different times have you used emergency contraception?”

Reasons for using emergency contraception: Women who had ever used emergency contraception 

were asked, “Did you use emergency contraception because you were worried your birth control 

method would not work, you didn’t use birth control that time, or for some other reason?” For 

convenience in writing, the phrases “fear of method failure” and “unprotected sex” were used. 

Women could give multiple responses to this question because they may have had more than one 

reason or used emergency contraception multiple times for different reasons. If a woman chose 

both “worried the method would not work” and “did not use birth control,” she was counted in 

both categories. Most emergency contraception users reported only one reason. Too few women 

reported “some other reason” to analyze.

Sexually experienced: Women who had ever had vaginal, heterosexual intercourse. Of the sample 

of women aged 15–44 in the 2006–2010 NSFG, 87% had ever had sexual intercourse.

Data source and methods

This report is based primarily on data from the 2006–2010 NSFG. NSFG provides populationlevel information about lifetime and recent use of emergency contraception among U.S. 

women of reproductive age. Additional questions in the data set related to the use of emergency 

contraception are not presented here.

Statistics for this report were produced using SAS software version 9.2. The sampling errors were 

produced with SUDAAN software version 10.0.1. Percentages were compared using two-tailed 

t tests at the 5% level. No adjustments were made for multiple comparisons. A weighted leastsquares regression method was used to test the significance of the time trend and differences 

across education. Lack of comment regarding the difference between any two statistics does 

not mean that the difference was tested and found not to be significant. In the description of 

the results, when the percentage being cited is below 10%, the text cites the percentage to one 

decimal point. To make reading easier and to remind the reader that the results are based on 

samples and subject to sampling error, percentages of 10% and above are shown rounded to the 

nearest whole number.

This report presents descriptive statistics on ever-use, frequency of use, and reasons for use of 

emergency contraception by women’s characteristics at the time of interview, not cause-and-effect 

relationships. A link to a data table that includes percentages and standard errors is listed in the 

footnotes of each figure. Although not shown in the figures, the supplemental data tables provide 

information on variation in ever-use and reasons for use of emergency contraception by region 

and metropolitan residence.

About the authors

Kimberly Daniels, Jo Jones, and Joyce Abma are with the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics, Reproductive 

Statistics Branch.
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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References

1. Trussell J, Raymond EG. Emergency contraception: A last chance to prevent unintended 

pregnancy. 2012. Available from: http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/ec-review.pdf.

2. Finer LB, Zolna MR. Unintended pregnancy in the United States: incidence and disparities, 

2006. Contraception 84(5):478–85. 2011.

3. Ellertson C. History and efficacy of emergency contraception: Beyond Coca-Cola. Int Fam 

Plan Perspect 22(2):52–6. 1996.

4. Hatcher RA, Trussell J, Nelson AL, Cates W, Kowal D, Policar MS. Contraceptive technology. 

20th ed rev. New York: Ardent Media. 2011.

5. Food and Drug Administration. Plan B: Questions and answers. 2006. Available from: http://

www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/

ucm109783.htm.

6. Jones J, Mosher WD, Daniels K. Current contraceptive use in the United States, 2006–2010, 

and changes in patterns of use since 1995. National health statistics reports; no. 60. Hyattsville, 

MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2012.

7. Cleland K, Zhu H, Goldstuck N, Cheng L, Trussell J. The efficacy of intrauterine devices 

for emergency contraception: A systematic review of 35 years of experience. Hum Reprod 

27(7):1994–2000. 2012.
NCHS Data Brief ■ No. 112 ■ February 2013

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Suggested citation

Daniels K, Jones J, Abma J. Use of 

emergency contraception among women 

aged 15–44: United States, 2006–2010. 

NCHS data brief, no 112. Hyattsville, MD: 

National Center for Health Statistics. 2013.

Copyright information

All material appearing in this report is in 

the public domain and may be reproduced 

or copied without permission; citation as to 

source, however, is appreciated.

National Center for Health 

Statistics

Edward J. Sondik, Ph.D., Director

Jennifer H. Madans, Ph.D., Associate 

Director for Science

Division of Vital Statistics

Charles J. Rothwell, M.S., Director

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CS237393