Although it has declined substantially over the past two decades, the pregnancy rate among girls and women 15 to 19 years of age remains a stubborn public health problem. Each year, more than 600,000 teens become pregnant and 3 in 10 teens will become pregnant before they reach 20 years of age. According to community studies, 10%-40% of young girls have had unintended pregnancies and 14 million children worldwide are born every year to young married and unmarried women aged 15-19 years. Similarly, teenage pregnancy accounts for about 70,000 deaths annually. The teenage pregnancy rate is higher in Africa than its surrounding continents; as it is a fact that of the 20 countries in the world that have the highest teenage pregnancy rates, 18 countries are from Africa. Uganda has one of the highest levels of teenage pregnancy ranked 14th out of 54 countries in Africa, with 24% of adolescents (13-19 years) in 2011; who were already
mothers or pregnant with their first child. Currently, the average prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Uganda is as high as 25%, with 27% in rural areas and 19% in urban areas. These studies show that teenage pregnancy is still at a high prevalence and particularly most of these cases come from developing countries. Unintended pregnancy is seen as a key concept for understanding fertility and the unmet need for family planning. It has been a major challenge in developing countries including Uganda. However, there is scarce representative information on its determinants among teenagers in Uganda. Data for this study were extracted from the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. The prevalence of unintended pregnancies among teenagers between 12-19 was computed. Chi-square and multivariate logit regression analysis methods were used to measure association and predict the factors influencing unintended pregnancies in Uganda.