45% of mothers under the age of 15 in the EU come from Romania. Pregnancy, experienced traumatically

Almost half (45%) of mothers under the age of 15 in the EU come from Romania. Our country registers 34 births per 1,000 teenage girls. In Europe, only two countries present a relatively worse situation: Bulgaria and Georgia, with values of 36.8 and 38.3 births, respectively, according to a study carried out by Save the Children Romania.

One in three girls who are currently mothers/pregnant minors got pregnant for the first time around the age of 15 or less, according to the data of the qualitative study carried out by Save the Children Romania between October and December 2023.

In 2022 alone, 746 births were recorded to girls between the ages of 10 and 14, with another 1,286 births to mothers who were 15 years old.

“Almost half (45%) of the births to mothers under 15 in the European Union states come from Romania, where one in ten newborns has a teenage mother. Although Romania gave in 2022 only 4.59% of births in the EU, the percentage reaches 28.14% for births to mothers under 18 and 44.17% for those from mothers who have not reached the age of 15 “, the study shows, according to a press release from the Save the Children Romania organization.

The phenomenon of pregnancy among minors is a phenomenon frequently associated with increased infant mortality, according to the report of the Ministry of Health (INSP) for 2022.

Here is how the dynamics of births from underage mothers look for the last five years (Eurostat data):

• 2018: 8,621 births to mothers under the age of 18, of which 725 to mothers who have not yet turned 15;

• 2019: 8,457 births to mothers under 18, 749 to mothers under 15;

• 2020: 8,276 births to mothers under 18, 731 to mothers under 15;

• 2021: 8,024 births to mothers under 18, 745 to mothers under 15;

• 2022: 7,538 births to mothers under 18, 746 to mothers under 15.

In total, from 2018 to 2022, Romania recorded 40,916 births to mothers under the age of 18, of which 3,696 were to mothers who had not yet turned 15.