State of World Population 2012 - Country Page List - UNFPA

(as stated in the Convention on the Rights of
the Child), but it remains all too common,
particularly in Africa and South Asia, where
approximately half of all girls are married
before age 18 (Hervish, 2011). Most married
girls become pregnant not long after marriage
(Godha, Hotchkiss and Gage, 2011).
Even though 75 per cent of all births among
adolescents are described as “intended,”
(World Health Organization, 2008), such
intentions may be strongly influenced by social
pressures and cultural norms, for example, that
a woman prove her fertility to her husband
and his family soon after marriage (Godha,
Hotchkiss and Gage, 2011). For unmarried
girls, pregnancy is far more likely to be unintended
and to end in abortion (World Health
Organization, 2008).
In Latin America, births among adolescents
have declined more rapidly, but remain high,
averaging 80 births per 1,000 young women
per year. In a few countries, such as Ecuador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, adolescent
birth rates are above 100 births per 1,000
women ages 15 to 19, approaching those of
most sub-Saharan countries (UNFPA 2011).
Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing are
Other
much higher among indigenous groups in these
countries; these groups tend to be socioeconomically
and educationally disadvantaged (Lewis
and Lockheed, 2007). In the United States,
birth rates among adolescents have recently
40%
declined among all ethnic groups to an historic
low level of 34 births per 1,000 women but are
60%
still higher than they are in Western Europe
(UNFPA, 2010a).
Births among adolescents are declining in
most regions, but the rate of decline has slowed
in some parts of the world, even reversed in
some countries in sub-Saharan Africa where
births among adolescents are the highest in the
Adolescents
and youth (15-24)
Unsafe abortions
among adolescents and youth
percentage of total unsafe abortions in developing
countries and proportion as a percentage of unsafe
abortion BY region
Percentage among adolescents and youth, as a
percentage of total unsafe abortions worldwide
Adolescents
and youth (15-24)
60%
40%
Other
Breakdown, as a percentage of unsafe
abortions (15-24 years) in their region
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
20-24
32
31
25
Africa
15-19
Asia
Source: Shah, I., Ahman, E (2004). “Age Patterns of Unsafe Abortion
in Developing Country Regions. Reproductive Health Matters. 12(24
Supplement):9–17.
23
9
29
14
Latin America
and Caribbean
6
5
4
3
2
1
THE STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2012
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