162,000 Mothers Under 20

11 May, 2009 [ 14:42 ]

Peru has 162,000 adolescent mothers


LivinginPeru.com
Israel Ruiz

According to Peru's National Statistics Institute, the country has 7,130,000 mothers over the age of 12, which is 64.5 percent of the female population in this age group.

It was reported that 162,000 of these moms are adolescents between the ages of twelve and nineteen.

Ninety percent of the girls between the ages of 12 and 14 got pregnant because they were raped or sexually abused, said INEI.

It was also reported that twenty percent of the country's miscarriages were among adolescent mothers-to-be.

INEI statistics also showed that twenty percent of female teenagers in Peru's rural regions had children. The maternity rate in urban areas among teen girls was registered at ten percent.

42.2 percent of the country's females with children are married while thirty-four percent has not gotten married, said INEI.

The national institute also reported that eight percent of the country's mothers are divorced while 7.1 percent are single moms.