Daily Hospital News: Abortion statistics for England and Wales: see the latest breakdown

The latest abortion statistics show huge variation in rates across England and Wales. Find out what the latest figures say
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Abortion statistics across England and Wales are out today - and although they only show a slight rise (189,574 abortions carried out in 2010, up 0.3% on the 189,100 in 2009) they still provide a fascinating insight into women's live across the two countries.

The figures from the Department of Health show abortion rates and numbers across every imaginable demographic, by age, ethnicity, reason and region.

They show, for instance that half of abortions (49%) in 2010 were to women with partners while 26% were to single women and 16% of abortions occurred within marriage. The numbers of abortions to girls under 16 are down too, which Guardian and Observer health correspondent Denis Campbell says is significant:

The finding in these latest statistics that I think is truly significant and welcome is the fall in the rate of abortion among both girls under 16 (down to 3.9 per 1,000 from 4.0 per 1,000) and those under 18 (16.5 per thousand, down from 17.6 per 1,000). They're not just down year-on-year. They're also either the same as in 2000 - when there were 3.9 per thousand under-16s - or down, in the case of their slightly older peers, from 18.3 per 1,000 a decade ago.
The data cannot explain any trend within them but it is likely that female teenagers are making greater use of the most appropriate form of contraception for them.
As Dr Paula Franklin of abortion provider Marie Stopes International says: "The number of under-18 abortions in England and Wales has fallen, which we believe correlates with the increased uptake of contraception. From our own experience as uptake of long-acting forms of contraception has increased, we have seen a corresponding reduction in the number of repeat abortions with under 20-year-olds"

The vast majority of abortions take place in the very early stages of pregnancy (77% took place before 10 weeks gestation) with only one in ten taking place over 13 weeks gestation - which is an issue because anti-abortion campaigners and some MPs would like to ban abortions over 20 weeks, as is now the case in Oklahoma and three other states in US.

In total, 64,303 procedures were to women who had had at least one abortion previously, of these, 1,201 abortions were among girls under 18 who had undergone one previous abortion, while 79 were to girls who had had two or more.

Because the data is available at primary care trust level, we know which areas have the highest - and lowest - rates. So, Newham in London has the highest rate - 39.9 per 1,000 women. But for different age groups, the results really vary: the highest rate is in Lambeth, at 36 per 1,000 women. The lowest overall rate in teh country is Ceredigion in Wales with only 9.7.

An interesting under-detail, not often reported, is how many women have to travel to England or Wales for abortions. In 2010, 6,535 women came here, the biggest number, 4,402, from Ireland, followed closely by Northern Ireland - where abortion is tightly restricted. There are also 158 women from Middle Eastern countries, such as the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt.

We've got the full dataset below. What can you do with it?