Adolescent pregnancy and childbearing: Levels and trends in developed countries

Context: Adolescent pregnancy occurs in all societies, but the level of tee nage pregnancy and childbearing varies from country to country A cross-coun try analysis of birth and abortion measures is valuable for understanding t rends, for identifying countries that are exceptional and for seeing where further in-depth studies are needed to understand observed patterns. Methods: Birth, abortion and population data were obtained from various sou rces, such as national vital statistics reports, official statistics, publi shed national and international sources, and government statistical offices . Trend data on adolescent birthrates were compiled for 46 countries over t he period 1970-1995. Abortion rates fora recent year were available for 33 of the 46 countries, and data on trends in abortion rates could be gathered for 25 of the 46 countries. Results: The level of adolescent pregnancy varies by a factor of almost 10 across the developed countries, from a very low rate in the Netherlands (12 pregnancies per 1,000 adolescents per year) to an extremely high rate in t he Russian Federation (more than 100 per 1, 000). Japan and most western Eu ropean countries have very low or low pregnancy rates (under 40 per 1, 000) ; moderate rates (40-69 per 1,000) occur in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a number of European countries. A group of five countries-Belarus, Bulg aria, Romania, the Russian Federation and the United States-have pregnancy rates of 70 or more per 1,000. The adolescent birthrate has declined in the majority of industrialized countries over the past 25 years, and in some c ases has been more than halved. Similarly, pregnancy rates in 12 of the 18 countries with accurate abortion reporting showed declines. Decreases in th e adolescent abortion rate, however, were less prevalent. Conclusions: The trend reward lower adolescent birthrates and pregnancy rat es over the past 25 years is widespread and is occurring across the industr ialized world, suggesting that the reasons for this general trend are broad er than factors limited to any one country: increased importance of educati on, increased motivation of young people to achieve higher levels of educat ion and training, and greater centrality of goals other than motherhood and family formation for young women.