STATISTICS South Africa has revealed that a staggering 13,9 per cent of registered live births in 2016 were born to mothers between the ages of 10 and 19 years old.
This means that teenagers were responsible for 136 996 births in 2016. A large number (783 322) of the births registered occurred to mothers between the ages of 20 and 39 years; of these, 243 148 occurred to mothers within the 20−24 years age group. A total of 34 923 (3,6 per cent) of births registered were to mothers in the 40−54 years age group in the same year.
The total number of registered births dropped by 10 per cent compared to 2015. A mammoth 1 084 511 live births were registered at the Department of Home Affairs in 2015 and it dropped to 969 415 last year.
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Overall, there were slightly more males (491 109) than females (478 306) registered. Of the 969 415 total births, Gauteng had the highest number of births ahead of KZN and Limpopo. Northern Cape had the lowest number.
In general, the pattern of birth occurrences by month has been the same in recent years with the highest proportion of births occurring during the month of March. This suggests that birth occurrences were likely to be conceived during June or July.
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