KEY FACTS
- Approximately 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 years and 2.5 million girls under 16 years give birth each year in developing regions (2) (3).
- Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for 15 to 19 year-old girls globally* (4).
- Every year, some 3.9 million girls aged 15 to 19 years undergo unsafe abortions (1).
- Adolescent mothers (ages 10 to 19 years) face higher risks of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24 years
Every year, an estimated 21 million girls aged 15 to 19 years and 2 million girls aged under 15 years become pregnant in developing regions (1) ,(2). Approximately 16 million girls aged 15 to 19 years and 2.5 million girls under age 16 years give birth in developing regions.2,3
The global adolescent birth rate has declined from 65 births per 1000 women in 1990 to 47 births per 1000 women in 2015 (6). Despite this overall progress, because the global population of adolescents continues to grow, projections indicate the number of adolescent pregnancies will increase globally by 2030, with the greatest proportional increases in West and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa (7).
Additionally, regional differences reveal unequal progress: adolescent birth rates range from a high of 115 births per 1000 women in West Africa to 64 births per 1000 women in Latin America and the Caribbean to 45 births per 1000 women in South-Eastern Asia, to a low of 7 births per 1000 women in Eastern Asia (8). There are also up to three times more adolescent pregnancies in rural and indigenous populations than in urban populations .
source: WHO
