Increasing Adolescent and Youth Fertility in Brazil: A New Trend or a One-Time Event?

Suzana M Cavenaghi, National School of Statistics (ENCE/IBGE)
Elza Berquó, Universidade Estadual de Campinas

The objective of this paper is to analyze the increase in fertility rates among adolescent and young women in Brazil in the last decade, by utilizing census data and the household survey data, in order to set the scenario where this increase has happened and to hypothesize about the trends for the next decade. The results have shown that adolescent or youth fertility, those understood as the population aged 15-19 years old, has increased while age specific fertility rates for all other age groups has decreased. Additionally, the 2000 census data show that the largest increases were among the less educated women, the poorest and living in urban areas. These results indicate that although this is a general trend in the population, the public health system must put attention to this fact, since the increase is much larger among the poorest in the population.