More than 34,000 girls and adolescents gave birth in Colombia so far in 2025, reveals a study on child and adolescent pregnancy

Between January and July of this year, 1,630 girls under the age of 14 became mothers in Colombia . This is according to a recent report by the Laboratory of Economics of Education (LEE) at Javeriana University, which compiled official figures from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) on child and adolescent pregnancy.

The report's findings are alarming, although significant progress has been made in recent years. As of July 31st of this year, 34,664 girls and adolescents aged 19 and under had given birth (including 33,034 mothers between the ages of 15 and 19), representing 14.2 percent of all births in Colombia up to that date .

These are clearly worrying figures, especially with regard to pregnancies occurring before the age of consent for sexual relations, which in Colombia is established by law at 14 years old.

As explained by Gloria Bernal, director of LEE: “In Colombia, it is a crime to have sexual relations with minors under 14 years of age. Even so, in the first seven months of the year alone, 1,630 girls (between 10 and 14 years old) were reported as mothers. Although the rate of teenage pregnancy is decreasing, it remains a cause for concern, and it is urgent to strengthen the prevention of sexual abuse, access to contraceptive methods, and comprehensive sexuality education based on respect and consent.”

Despite this, researchers noted that this rate has steadily declined over the past 17 years. Between 2008 and 2024, 10,786,551 births were recorded, of which 94,146 were to girls between 10 and 14 years old and 2,155,779 to adolescents between 15 and 19 years old. These statistics do not include stillbirths, that is, cases in which a woman became pregnant but lost the baby.

According to the reported figures, births to mothers in both age groups have been declining steadily since 2013 in the country, as has the total number of births. Specifically, while in 2008 there were 6,944 and 160,478 births to mothers aged 10 to 14 and 15 to 19 (for a total of 167,422), respectively, by 2024 both figures had fallen to 3,200 and 64,792 (for a total of 67,992).

But since total births in Colombia have also declined, the report presented the percentage of births to mothers in this age group. Thus, the country went from having 23.4 percent of its births to women aged 10 to 19 in 2008 to a rate of 15 percent by the end of 2024, its lowest level in almost two decades. Despite this, researchers insist that “the phenomenon continues to affect thousands of lives and demands comprehensive public policies that guarantee sex education, healthcare, and the prevention of sexual violence.”

The results show that Vichada has the highest relative incidence of early pregnancy, with 24.4 percent of births to mothers aged 10 to 19 (335 births to mothers aged 10 to 19). Guainía follows with 23.8 percent, Magdalena with 22.9 percent, and Chocó with 22.5 percent. At the bottom of the list are Valle with 11.9 percent, Cundinamarca with 11.3 percent, San Andrés and Providencia with 8.8 percent, and Bogotá DC with the lowest rate (8 percent), with 4,525 births. Only 12 territories have rates below the national average (15 percent).

In the country, rates of pregnancy among children (ages 10 to 14) and adolescents (ages 15 to 19) are also falling, and not just births to mothers in these age groups. While in 2008 the adolescent pregnancy rate was 79.7 per 1,000 adolescents aged 15 to 19, by 2024 it had decreased to 30.3. The same occurred with the child pregnancy rate, which fell from 3.3 to 1.6 per 1,000 inhabitants between 2008 and 2024.

In the international context, Colombia's adolescent fertility rate remains high. According to the adolescent fertility rate (number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19) published by the World Bank, the country is in a precarious situation regarding early pregnancy.

Of the 263 countries and regions studied by the international organization, Colombia is in position 65 of the countries with the highest fertility rate , far exceeding the world average, only behind some countries in the region, such as Mexico, or in Africa, such as Senegal.

The report also warns about fetal deaths in the country. It found that in 2024, 2,869 deaths were recorded among girls and adolescents during their pregnancies, a 21.1 percent reduction compared to the previous year. This trend, which has continued since 2015, remains a cause for concern. Furthermore, of the fetal deaths in 2024, 238 occurred in mothers aged 10 to 14.

The DANE figures analyzed by LEE also revealed the main causes of fetal deaths in this population. Thus, for child and adolescent mothers, 69.7 percent were due to maternal conditions and 19.7 percent to complications during the perinatal period.

Among the reasons for terminating a pregnancy, there is no category for voluntary termination. However, many of these pregnancies are unwanted. In this regard, according to the 2015 National Demographic and Health Survey (ENDS) by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, 19 percent of mothers under 20 years of age did not want to become pregnant at that stage of their lives.

MATEO CHACÓN ORDUZ | Education Subeditor