Age-Disaggregated Data on Early Childbearing in Developing Countries for Development

Hantamalala Rafalimanana, United Nations

Adolescent childbearing has well-known health and socioeconomic adverse effects at global, societal and personal levels. The deleterious consequences of adolescent fertility are more severe for younger adolescents than for older ones. In addition, childbearing at very young ages touches upon human rights as it may be associated with child marriage, coerced sex or lack of access to reproductive health services. Hence, more targeted information (data on adolescent fertility by single year of age among adolescents, and fertility data to girls under age 15) that are comparable across countries and regions are needed to help programs focus on subgroups that are most at risk. The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to filling the gap in disaggregated data on adolescent fertility that exists in developing countries by presenting adolescent fertility rates by single age, age group (11-14, 15-17 and 18-19), and marital status using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys.