Mississippi

Mississippi schools are not required to teach sex education, even though most high school students in the state report already having had sex.

Sex Education Policy

Mississippi does not require sex education for its students, but if taught, by law programs must closely track with the 8-point federal definition of abstinence-only education. See the statutes governing sex education

Health Outcomes

Mississippi's AIDS rate is near the national average. However, Mississippi has a higher teen pregnancy rate than the national rate, and among the worst STI rates in the nation, including the worst gonorrhea rate of any state.


	Teen Pregnancy Rate*	Teen Birth Rate*	Annual rate of AIDS Diagnoses (per 100,000 people)	STI Rate⁺	% of high school students who did not use a condom at last sex
Mississippi	85	64.2	13.1	209.9	34
National	70	39.1	11.2	100.8	39

*Per 1000 young women ages 15-19
+Because of concern over recent changes in Chlamydia reporting and relative low incidence of syphilis, we used the state's gonorrhea rate as a stand-in for sexually transmitted infection rates.