KINSHASA, DR Congo:July 4 (Xinhua) — The Democratic Republic of Congo has the world’s highest population of people giving birth at the youngest age, a report by the National Institute for Population Studies (INED) has shown.
The report showed in DR Congo there was an average of 201 births out of 1,000 young women aged between 15 to 19 years. However, the study noted that this type of maternity had reduced in recent years due to the increased number of young girls who are going to school and the new aspirations of young girls to improve their living conditions.
It was further indicated that in 2010, 16 million babies were born to mothers aged below 20 years, which stood for 12 percent of the total births, or a birth rate of 54 births in 1,000 women aged between 15 to 29 years.
The report said that early fertility is high in countries where girls get married when they are still young and it’s low in countries where the first marriage is done when a girl is beyond 25 years old. (Xinhua)
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