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.