Wellington, Feb 21 (SocialNews.XYZ) The number of teenage girld in New Zealand giving birth has more than halved over the last decade, thanks to improved education and access to contraception, the country's statistics department said on Tuesday.
According to Stats NZ, there were 1,719 births registered to teenage women aged under 20 years in 2022, accounting for around one in every 34 births that year, reports Xinhua news agency.
In 2012, there were 3,786 births registered to teenage mothers, accounting for around one in every 16 births that year, it added.
For every 1,000 women in New Zealand aged 15-19, there were 11 births in 2022, down from 25 births in 2012. This is a drop of 55 per cent.
In 2022, 99 per cent of teenage births were to mothers aged 15-19, statistics show.
"The decreasing number of teenage births coincides with improved education and access to contraception," Stats NZ's estimates and projections manager Michael MacAskill said.
In 1972, when teenage births peaked, 9,150 teenage women gave birth, accounting for around one in every seven births that year.
At that time, there were 69 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19 years, MacAskill said.
While teenage births generally dropped after 1972, there was a small peak in 2008 when 5,223 births were registered to mothers aged under 20, or one in every 12 births that year. Since then, births to teenage mothers have generally decreased, he said.
The latest New Zealand abortion services annual report shows that the number of induced abortions accessed by teenagers has also decreased over the last decade.
"While the number of teenagers giving birth reduced, the number of women having children in their 30s or older has generally increased," MacAskill said.
Births to mothers aged more than 40 years old have also generally increased, although still only accounting for a small proportion of total births, he said.
In the 1970s, around one in every 100 births were to mothers aged 40 and above.
In 2022, one in every 25 births were to mothers aged 40 and above, a similar proportion to that in the last 15 years, statistics show.
Source: IANS
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