Live births to mothers under 15 totalled 278 and to the 15-19 group totalled 7,956. Together these accounted for 8,234 or 19.4% of all births. In the previous year, the under 15 group had 311 while the 15-19 had 8,110 which totalled 8,421 or 19.4% of the births in that year.
As expected, the single largest cohort belonged to the 15-19 group of mothers who were giving birth to their first live born with 6,456 or 15.2% of all births. In 2003 this cohort had 6,430 or 14.8%. This indicates an increase of 0.4 percentage points for 2004 compared to 2003. For the previous three years the percentage of these births had progressively decreased.
In respect of parish of occurrence, the parishes with the highest percentage of its birth to all mothers 19 and under were Trelawny and Hanover with 25.2% and 22.8%. The parish with the lowest percentage was St. Andrew with 6.3%. Examining this data trend for parish of residence of mother, it is observed that Trelawny still led with 23.8% of its births to mothers 19 and under followed by Clarendon with 21.8% while the parish with the smallest percentage was St. Catherine with 16.0%.
(Tables 9, 9a and 9b)
In Chart 1, it can be seen that for age groups 15-19, 20-24, 30-34 and 35-39, there were slight decreases from 2003 to 2004 in respect of the number of live births to mother in each age category. In the under 15 and 25-29 groups there were no significant changes. In 2003, the picture differed when decreases were registered from 2002 to 2003 for age groups 15-19, 25-29 and 30-34; the under 15 and 35-39 age groups did not show changes while the 20-24 group was the sole category to experience an increase.
CHART 1: LIVE BIRTHS OCCURRING IN 2003 VS. 2004 FOR MOTHERS OF AGE GROUPS UNDER 15 YEARS TO 35-39 YEARS
Chart 2 focuses on the comparison for 2003 and 2004 live births to mothers in the 15-19 age group for first to fourth birth orders. First born births increased slightly from 2003 to 2004. Conversely second born births decreased slightly for the same period. The third born group also showed a minimal decline. In respect of the mean totals for each group per year, mothers in the 15 to 19 age group having their first child averaged around 6,400. The group of the same age having their second child averaged around 1,400. The third born category averaged below 200 while on the chart, the number for fourth born was negligible.
CHART 2: LIVE BIRTHS OCCURING IN 2003 vs 2004 FOR TEENAGE MOTHERS (15-19 YEARS OLD)
In Graph 2, the percentage change in the number of live births to mothers in the 15-19 age group having their first to fourth child for the period 2003 to 2004 is shown. For three of the four live birth orders, there were negative percentage changes from 2003 to 2004. There was a slight percentage increase of 0.4 for first born for the period, however, progressively larger percentage decreases were recorded for second, third and fourth born to 15-19 year olds at the following magnitudes: -8.5%, -22.2% and -38.1% respectively. In the previous one-year comparison for 2002 to 2003, there were percentage decreases for the first, second and third born groups (-2.7%, -11.9% and -10.7% respectively) but a significant percentage increase for fourth born at 50.0%.
GRAPH 2: PERCENTAGE CHANGE IN NUMBER OF LIVE BIRTHS TO TEENAGE MOTHERS (15-19 YEARS OLD) FOR THE PERIOD 2003-2004