Number of teenage mothers reaches lowest level ever

In 2011 just 2.365 girls under the age of 20 in the Netherlands gave birth to a child , fewer than 5 out of every 1000 girls in this age group; this is the lowest level ever recorded by Statistics Netherlands.

The number of teen moms in the Netherlands has decreased sharply in recent decades. In 2011 the birth rate among girls younger than 20 was 4,8 per 1000, whereas 40 years ago this figure stood at 22,3 per 1000, nearly a five-fold decrease. In almost nowhere else in Europe is the teenage birthrate as low as it is here.

However, there are large differences between ethnic groups. Among Turkish immigrant girls, the birth rate is lower (2,2 per 1000) than among Dutch natives (3,5 per 1000), whereas among girls from the Dutch Antilles the birth rate is over 6 times higher. Furthermore, while for many ethnic groups the birth rate has decreased over time, for girls from the Antilles and from Suriname they have barely changed and in some years have even increased.

The birth rate of first generation Dutch Antillean girls is actually higher (39 per 1000) than it is among girls living in the Caribbean Netherlands (i.e. Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba, all formerly part of the Dutch Antilles), but this number drops for Antillean girls who were born in the Netherlands (2nd generation) to 21 per 1000.