Safe sex campaign seems to be working in the UK. Condoms seem to be as popular as the pills among women, as per figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

Condoms are used by 25 per cent of women under 50, and an equal percentage use the pill as a birth-control method, according to Opinions Survey Report No. 41 Contraception and Sexual Health, 2008/09 , which is based on information provided by 2,557 respondents (1,464 men and 1,093 women).

Other findings included:

• the majority of women under 50 (75 per cent) were using contraception

• younger women preferred to use the pill or male condom, and

• older women were more likely than younger women to rely on sterilisation or their partner’s vasectomy.

Excluding women who had been sterilised at least two years ago, in 2008/09 almost all women (91 per cent) said they had heard of the emergency contraception pill, or “morning after pill”. However, awareness of the emergency intrauterine device (IUD), which can be inserted up to five days after intercourse, had fallen from 49 per cent in 2000/01 to 40 per cent in 2008/09.

In 2008/09, TV programmes and adverts were acknowledged as the main source of information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by 55 per cent of those surveyed. Newspapers, magazines and books were mentioned as the main source by 16 per cent and government information leaflets by three per cent. Sex information in schools or colleges accounted for 11 per cent.