Indicator 3.7.2 Adolescent birth rate (aged 10–14 years; aged 15–19 years) per 1,000 women in that age group

Indicator 3.7.2: Adolescent birth rate (aged 10–14 years; aged 15–19 years) per 1,000 women in that age group

Target 3.7: By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes

Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Definition:

Annual number of births to females aged 10-14 or 15-19 years per 1,000 females in the respective age group.

Concepts:

The adolescent birth rate represents the level of childbearing among females in the particular age group. The adolescent birth rate among women aged 15-19 years is also referred to as the age-specific fertility rate for women aged 15-19.

Annual number of births to females aged 10-14 or 15-19 years per 1,000 females in the respective age group.

Civil registration is the preferred data source. Census and household survey are alternate sources when there is no reliable civil registration.

Data on births by age of mother are obtained from civil registration systems covering 90 percent or more of all live births, supplemented eventually by census or survey estimates for periods when registration data are not available. For the numerator, the figures reported by National Statistical Offices (NSOs) to the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) have first priority. When they are not available or present problems, use is made of data from the regional statistical units or directly from NSOs. For the denominator, first priority is given to the latest revision of World Population Prospects (WPP) produced by the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations. In cases where the numerator does not cover the complete de facto population, an alternative appropriate population estimate is used if available. When either the numerator or denominator is missing, the direct estimate of the rate produced by the NSO is used. Information on sources is provided at the cell level. When the numerator and denominator come from two different sources, they are listed in that order.

In countries lacking a civil registration system or where the coverage of that system is lower than 90 percent of all live births, the adolescent birth rate is obtained from household survey data and census data. Registration data regarded as less than 90 percent complete are exceptionally used for countries where the alternative sources present problems of compatibility and registration data can provide an assessment of trends. In countries with multiple survey programmes, large sample surveys conducted on an annual or biennial basis are given precedence when they exist.

For information on the source of each estimate, see United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division: DemoData: Data Browser (online database of empirical demographic data and selected tabulations). https://popdiv.dfs.un.org/demodata/web/#!#%2Fhome

For civil registration data, data on births or the adolescent birth rate are obtained from country-reported data from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) or regional Statistics Divisions or statistical units (ESCWA, ESCAP, CARICOM, SPC). The population figures are obtained from the last revision of the United Nations Population Division World Population Prospects and only exceptionally from other sources. Survey data are obtained from national household surveys that are internationally coordinated—such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), the Reproductive Health Surveys (RHS), and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)—and other nationally-sponsored surveys. Data from censuses are obtained from country-reported data from the UNSD or regional Statistics Divisions or statistical units (ESCWA, ESCAP, CARICOM, SPC) or directly from census reports.

Discrepancies between estimates obtained from different national data are common.

For civil registration, rates are subject to limitations which depend on the completeness of birth registration, the treatment of infants born alive but die before registration or within the first 24 hours of life, the quality of the reported information relating to age of the mother, and the inclusion of births from previous periods. The population estimates may suffer from limitations connected to age misreporting and coverage.

For survey and census data, both the numerator and denominator come from the same population. The main limitations concern age misreporting, the omission of births, misreporting the date of birth of the child, and, in the case of surveys, sampling size and variability.

With respect to estimates of the adolescent birth rate among females aged 10-14 years, comparative evidence suggests that a very small proportion of births in this age group occur to females below age 12. Other evidence based on retrospective birth history data from surveys indicates that women aged 15-19 years are less likely to report first births before age 15 than women from the same birth cohort when asked five years later at ages 20–24 years.

The adolescent birth rate is commonly reported as the age-specific fertility rate for ages 15-19 years in the context of calculation of total fertility estimates. It has also been called adolescent fertility rate. A related measure is the proportion of adolescent fertility measured as the percentage of total fertility contributed by women aged 15-19.

The adolescent birth rate is computed as a ratio. The numerator is the number of live births to women aged 15-19 years, and the denominator an estimate of exposure to childbearing by women aged 15-19 years. The computation is the same for the age group 10-14 years. The numerator and the denominator are calculated differently for civil registration, survey and census data.

Computation formula:

Adolescent Birth Rate (15-19) = (number of births to women ages 15-19/mid-year population of women ages 15-19) * 1,000

In the case of civil registration data, the numerator is the registered number of live births born to women aged 15-19 years during a given year, and the denominator is the estimated or enumerated population of women aged 15-19 years.

In the case of survey data, the numerator is the number of live births obtained from retrospective birth histories of the interviewed women who were 15-19 years of age at the time of the births during a reference period before the interview, and the denominator is person-years lived between the ages of 15 and 19 years by the interviewed women during the same reference period. The reported observation

year corresponds to the middle of the reference period. For some surveys without data on retrospective birth histories, computation of the adolescent birth rate is based on the date of last birth or the number of births in the 12 months preceding the survey.

With census data, the adolescent birth rate is computed on the basis of the date of last birth or the number of births in the 12 months preceding the enumeration. The census provides both the numerator and the denominator for the rates. In some cases, the rates based on censuses are adjusted for under- registration based on indirect methods of estimation. For some countries with no other reliable data, the own-children method of indirect estimation provides estimates of the adolescent birth rate for a number of years before the census.

Whenever data are available, adolescent fertility at ages 10-14 years are also computed.

For a thorough treatment of the different methods of computation, see Handbook on the Collection of Fertility and Mortality Data, United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.03.XVII.11, (https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/standmeth/handbooks/Handbook_Fertility_Mortality.pdf).Indirect methods of estimation are analyzed in Manual X: Indirect Techniques for Demographic Estimation, United Nations Publication, Sales No. E.83.XIII.2.

2024-05-24

Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Indicator is linked to Target 5.6 (Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences) because reductions in adolescent childbearing that are brought about by increasing access to sexual and reproductive health-care services are also reflective of improvements in sexual and reproductive health and the exercise of reproductive rights per se. This indicator is linked to Target 17.19 (By 2030 build on existing initiatives to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product and support statistical capacity-building in

developing countries) because the estimates of the adolescent birth rate are based in part on birth registration and census data. Strengthened civil registration and vital statistics systems reaching universal coverage of birth registration and conducting at least one census every 10 years are directly relevant for measuring progress on target 3.7.