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.

中文翻译：

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早育和童婚：最新动态

政策制定者和倡导者认为，消除童婚是减少 18 岁以下女孩生育的一条途径，因为此前发现大多数早产都是在婚姻内发生的。然而，最近几乎没有证据表明早育发生的婚姻背景或这种关系如何随着空间和发展水平的变化而变化。我们利用涵盖全球约 95% 18 岁以下母亲生育的调查和人口动态登记数据，估算了全球、区域和国家层面婚内生育的比例。我们发现，全球超过一半的 18 岁以下母亲的分娩发生在撒哈拉以南非洲，而且这一比例还将继续增长。在全球范围内，18 岁以下母亲的第一胎中有 76% 发生在婚内，而且存在很大的地区差异。过去 20 年来，在有数据可查的大多数国家，18 岁以下母亲婚内生育第一胎的比例有所下降，但也有一些重要的例外。尽管大多数 18 岁以下女性的第一胎发生在结婚 7 个月后，但各国童婚和早育的顺序差异很大。