City teens are taking the old anti-drug mantra, “Just say no,” to heart — when it comes to sex.
More Big Apple high school students than ever say they are abstaining from sex, a health poll reveals.
The percentage of adolescents who had sexual intercourse fell from 37.8 percent in 2011 to 31.2 percent in 2013, the federal Centers for Disease Control’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey found.
The drop is part of a trend. In 2001, 51 percent of city teens said they had sex.
The teen sexual activity rate for 2013 is the lowest since the CDC began surveying students in 1997.
The latest bi-annual survey shows only one in five students said they had sex in the prior three months — down from 25 percent in 2011 and 37 percent in 2001.
And just 5.5 percent said they had sex before age 13, down from 7 percent in 2011 and 12 percent in 2001.
Experts credit sex-ed programs with helping inform teens of the risks of early sex, particularly unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
The survey notes 2.2 percent of students said they “have been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant one or more times” — down from 5.9 percent in 2011.
“This is a welcome move in the right direction. Teens who wait to engage in sexual activity are far likelier to succeed in school,” said Greg Pfundstein, president of the Chiaroscuro Foundation, a group that promotes abstinence-based sex ed.
“This trend comes on top of other city data showing the abortion rate steadily declining. We are seeing a positive cycle of change, and that should give us all hope.”
The drop in the percentage of city teens having sex was nearly equal for boys and girls. The rate among boys fell from 43.9 percent in 2011 to 36.3 percent in 2013. For girls, it went from 32.1 percent to 26.2 percent.
CDC Director Tom Frieden, the ex-city health commissioner, hailed the news.
“Young men and young women share responsibility to avoid pregnancy. Let’s support our teens so they delay having sex until they’re older,” he said.