DR leads in teenage pregnancies in the Caribbean
Guiomar Bay, an official of Population Affairs of the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center (Celade), on occasion of World Population Day on 11 July 2018 shared the fact the Dominican Republic leads in teenage pregnancies in the Caribbean. The data was shared during a presentation of data on generational replacement numbers of children and teenage pregnancies.
Figures from Celade show that the average of Latin America is at the level of generational replacement of 2.1 children per woman, which is the minimum number of births that guarantees the renewal of a population, with some differences between countries in their overall rate of fertility (TGF).
The data shows that generational replacement rates for regional countries are:
Puerto Rico (1.3), Brazil (1.7), Cuba (1.7), Chile (1.8), Costa Rica (1.8), Colombia (1.9), El Salvador (1.9), Uruguay (2), Mexico (2.2), Nicaragua (2.2), Venezuela (2.3), Argentina (2.3), Pero (2.4), Dominican Republic (2.4), Honduras (2.5), Paraguay (2.5), Ecuador (2.5), Panama (2.5), Bolivia (2.9), Haiti (2.9) and Guatemala (3).
Celade reports that Latin America has achieved a reduction in the generational replacement that contrasts with the high teenage pregnancy rates, only surpassed in the world by countries in Africa. The region reports 66.5% births per 1,000 young women ages 15 to 19 years. The regional average is 46 births per 1,000 young people. The report says that the Latin American region is the only one in the world where the number of teenage pregnancies is on the rise, as confirmed by a report by the Panamerican Health Organization, Unicef and the United Nations Fund for Population.
The Dominican Republic leads the region with teenage births, with 100.6. Other countries with high rates are Nicaragua (92.8), Guyana (90.1), Guatemala (84), Venezuela (80.9), Panama (78.5), Ecuador (77.3) and Bolivia (72.6).
UNFPA says that the poorer Latin American women do not have access to birth control.
Source: DR1, Listindiario
July 12, 2018
Category: DR News |