Record low percentage of teenage mothers

2365 girls under 20 years of age gave birth in 2011. This means fewer than 5 in a thousand teenage girls became mothers in 2011. This is the lowest figure ever observed by Statistics Netherlands, although there are great differences between the various groups of origins.

Never so few teenage mums

There has been a sharp decline in the number of teenage mums in recent decades. In 2011 the birth rate among girls under 20 was 4.8 per thousand, compared to 22.3 per thousand forty years earlier. There is hardly a country in Europe with such a low birth rate among teenager girls.

Teenage birth rates in Europe

No slowdown among Antillean and Surinamese teenage girls

There are major differences between the various groups of origin. The birth rate among teenage girls born in the Netherlands who have a Turkish background is 2.2 per thousand. This is well below the birth rate among teenage mums with a native Dutch background of 3.5 per thousand. The figure for teenage girls born in the Netherlands with an Antillean background is six times as high as the birth rate among native Dutch teenagers. In contrast with almost all other backgrounds, the birth rate among the teenage girls with an Antillean and Surinamese background has hardly diminished at all.

Teenage birth rates by origin

Comparable figure for the Dutch Caribbean

With 39 births per thousand girls, the highest birth rate is found among native Antillean girls aged under 20 who came to the Netherlands as children or young adults. Teenage mothers are as prevalent in this group as they are among teenager girls in the Dutch Caribbean (Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba). In 2011 the birth rate there was 38 per thousand girls under 20.

Birth rates among Antillean teenage girls

Frank van der Linden and Joop Garssen