Teenage fertility rates falling in South Africa
Moultrie, T.A.; McGrath, N.
South African Medical Journal 97(6): 442-443
2007
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 17691474 Document Number: 202146
Data were collected retrospectively and prospectively at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, a Demographic Surveillance Site in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and from the national antenatal clinic prevalence surveys on the proportion of births to women under the age of 20. The data from the Africa Centre cover a 16-year period from 1990 through 2005. Over the period, teenage fertility rates reached a peak of just over 100 births/1000 women and 1992 and 1995, declining consistently since 2001 to a level of 73 births/1000 women in 2005. Over the same period, the proportion of young adults in the area who have ever had sex remained stable and current contraceptive use in the age group increased significantly between 2000 and 2005.