Adolescent fertility rates, 2010
In Canada, 14 out of every 1,000 young women age 15 to 19 years gave birth in 2010. Among G8 countries, Canada’s adolescent fertility rate was higher than Japan, Italy, France, and Germany but lower than the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United States. Countries with growing economies, such as Brazil (75.6/1,000) and India (86.3/1,000), still have very high rates of teen pregnancies. Non-G8 countries with stable, highly developed social systems, such as Norway (9.0/1,000) and Switzerland (4.6/1,000), have low adolescent fertility rates.
Implications
“National trends can mask a number of realities that exist in one country. Teen birth rates from specific sub-populations reveal a more complex picture of teen pregnancy within a society and can be important indicators of social and economic inequity. In Canada, the 2003 fertility rate, or live birth rate, for females 15 to 19 years of age, ranged from a low of 10.8 births per 1,000 in British Columbia and 11.4 in Ontario, to a high of 117.4 per 1,000 in Nunavut.”1
1 “Best Start: Ontario’s Maternal Newborn and Early Child Development Resource Centre and the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.” (2007). Available at: http://www.beststart.org/resources/rep_health/pdf/teen_pregnancy.pdf -accessed on June 29, 2012.