About 16 million adolescent girls aged 15-19 give birth each year, roughly 11% of all births worldwide
• Almost 95% of these births occur in developing countries.
• They range from about 2% in China to 18% in Latin America and the Caribbean.
•Half of all adolescent births occur in just seven countries:Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ethiopia, Nigeria, India and the United States (Population Division 2008).
• The adolescent fertility rate worldwide was estimated to be 55.3 per thousand for the 2000-2005 period, meaning that on average about 5.5% of adolescents give birth each year.
• Adolescent birth rates in the less developed countries are more than twice as high compared to rates in more developed countries and these range from less than 1% per year in places like Japan and the Republic of Korea, to over 20% per year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Niger.