- Indicators of Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Early Childbearing and Adolescent Reproductive Health
- Family Planning and Unwanted Pregnancies
- Abortion Policies
- Nutritional Anemia in Pregnancy
- Access to Health Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth
- HIV/AIDS Among Women and Men
- Risk of Death in Childbearing
Early Childbearing and Adolescent Reproductive Health
The Reproductive Risk Index scores each country on the annual number of births per 100 women aged 15 to 19. Teen birthrates are highest in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where more than one in five girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year. The lowest rates are in Japan, the Koreas, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, where fewer than one in 100 girls give birth annually. In the United Kingdom, 1 in 34 teens give birth each year; in the United States, 1 in 20 give birth—the highest rates among wealthy industrialized countries. |
Worldwide, women aged 15 to 19 give birth to roughly 17 million of the 131 million children born each year. Women in this age group have ten percent of all abortions. Adolescents tend to delay seeking abortion, thus increasing the risks of the procedure. Teen pregnancy often further limits girls' options by driving many out of school.
Sexual activity and chilbearing early in life carry significant risks for young people all around the world. Teen mothers face twice the risk of dying from childbirth than do women in their twenties and their children are more vulnerable to health risks as well. Every year, almost half of all new HIV infections and at least one-third of all new sexually transmitted infections occur to people younger than 25.
Physiological and socioeconomic factors increase reproductive health risks for young women. HIV infection disproportionately affects this age group, as girls and young women become sexually involved with older infected males. More than one million girls in 30 countries undergo harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation that increase their vulnerability to infection with HIV/AIDS or result in complications that can lead to disability or death.
