2023/07/05 by Joseph Molitoris, Vladimíra Kantorová, Sehar Ezdi +1
Health Professions · Medicine · Social Sciences · #Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Global Maternal and Child Health
paper · doi:10.1111/sifp.12243
openalex publication_date 2023/07/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Eliminating child marriage is seen by policy makers and advocates as a path toward reducing births to girls below age 18, as most early births have been previously found to occur within marriage. There has been little recent evidence, however, of the marital context in which early childbearing occurs or how this relationship varies across space and levels of development. Using survey and vital registration data covering approximately 95 percent of the world's births to mothers younger than 18 years, we estimated the share of first births that occur within marriage at the global, regional and national levels. We found that more than half of births to mothers below age 18 worldwide take place in sub-Saharan Africa, and this share will continue to grow. Globally, 76 percent of first births to mothers below age 18 occur within marriage and there are large regional differences. Over the past two decades, the share of first births to mothers below age 18 occurring within marriage declined in most countries with data available, but there are important exceptions. Although most first births to women below age 18 occur following seven months of marriage, the sequencing of child marriage and early childbearing varies widely across countries.