Philippines logs 138,697 teen mothers

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has recorded nearly 139,000 adolescent mothers, with a worrying rise in pregnancies among girls below 15, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) said.

Citing the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the CPD revealed that there are a total of 138,697 mothers aged 10 to 19 in the Philippines.

Calabarzon recorded the highest number of adolescent mothers at 16,827, followed by Central Luzon (14,729) and the National Capital Region (10,656).

Meanwhile, Northern Mindanao and Soccsksargen recorded 10,394 and 9,588 adolescent mothers, respectively.

CPD executive director Lisa Bersales said that while the number of mothers aged 15 to 19 has been decreasing, the number of mothers below 15 years old is rising.

For 2024, data showed that the total number of mothers aged 15 to 19 was 135,085, lower than the 138,933 recorded in 2023.

For those under 15, a total of 3,612 adolescent mothers were recorded. This is higher than the 3,343 posted in 2023 and 3,135 in 2022.

Bersales said there is a need to give more attention to girls below 15 who become mothers at an early age.

“The parents were not able to recognize that these below-15 girls can already be sexually active. In the past, they were considered very young and we did not expect them to be sexually active. But times have changed. We now have social media accessible to these children,” Bersales stressed.

At the same time, the CPD chief said poverty, low educational attainment of the mother, and absent parents are among the factors that contribute to early pregnancies among young girls.

“Poor access to services and ineffective education of our youth about sexuality are the usual reasons,” Bersales added.

To address the issue, the CPD said it is intensifying its education and awareness campaign on teenage pregnancy by bringing efforts down to the local level.