Fewer Dutch teenagers become mothers, rate drops to 3.2 per 1,000

The number of teenage mothers in the Netherlands has continued to fall and campaigns appear to be having an effect on girls from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the national statistics office CBS.

Last year 1,574 teenage girls had a baby, or 3.2 girls in 1,000. A year earlier, the figure was 3.7 per 1,000.

Some 80% of teenage mothers were aged 18 or 19 and just 8% under the age of 16.

The drop in teenage motherhood is reflected across all communities. In 2005, 11 in 1,000 girls of Turkish origin had a baby but this has now fallen to 1.7, below the national average. Among teenagers with Moroccan roots, the drop was from 9.1 per 1,000 to 2.3.

Girls with a Surinamese or Antillean background are more likely to become teenage mothers but here too there has been a drop to nine and 16 per thousand, the CBS said.

The birth rate under Dutch teenagers is one of the lowest in the world, with only Switzerland and Denmark having fewer teenage mothers. Bulgaria and Poland have the highest teenage birth rates in Europe.