According to the 2013
Report on the State of World Population by the
United Nations Population Fund, 7.3 million girls under the age of 18 give birth each year in the developing world. This equates to 20,000 births every day. The report finds that ninety percent of these pregnancies occur within child marriage. Around two million of those births are to mothers under the age of 15.
The report urges more attention on the root causes of child pregnancy. Gender inequalities mean that girls have little power over their own lives. Force, coercion, rape, child marriage, lack of access to education, and good financial status are some of the gender disparities that lead to young motherhood.
Seventy thousand girls die each year due to pregnancy and childbirth complications. To combat the problem of adolescent pregnancy, the report stresses the importance of keeping girls in school, increasing access to medical services and contraception, and creating laws against child marriage and sexual violence.