Ewha Womans UniversityInstitute for Development and Human Security

Early Marriage

Globally, 700 million women were married before the age of 18, and more than one-third of them—approximately 25 million girls—married before the age of 15. While boys also marry during adolescence, the number is significantly lower compared to girls, with around 15 million boys, as shown in the graph. Early marriage is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Niger has the highest rate of early marriage in the world, while Bangladesh has the highest rate of early marriage among girls under 15. In South Asia, 42% of the world’s child brides are from this region, with India alone accounting for one-third of the world’s child brides.

Girls who marry early not only lose their precious childhood but also become socially isolated. They are distanced from family and friends, and their opportunities for education and employment are significantly limited. Statistically, girls who marry during childhood or adolescence have lower educational attainment. In Malawi, two-thirds of women who did not receive formal education are those who married early, whereas only 5% of women with high school or higher education are early brides. These statistics provide evidence that early marriage leads to a loss of educational opportunities for girls.

Early marriage has severe negative impacts on girls' health. Girls may wish to practice safe sex using condoms, but they often face difficulties in negotiating contraception with their partners, leading to exposure to sexually transmitted infections such as HIV and early pregnancies. Moreover, the pressure to bear children soon after marriage often results in early brides having many children despite their young age. In Nepal, one-third of women who married before age 15 and are now aged 20-24 have three or more children. Additionally, early brides often lack access to appropriate medical care during pregnancy. In Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Nigeria, adult women are at least twice as likely to give birth in medical facilities such as hospitals compared to girls who married before age 15. Despite being classified as high-risk mothers, girls under 15 often cannot give birth in well-equipped hospitals.

Early Pregnancy and Childbirth

In developing countries, girls tend to have early marriages and low contraceptive use rates, leading to high birth rates among adolescents. This significantly impacts their health. Adolescent pregnancies negatively affect not only the health of the young mothers but also that of their infants, potentially leading to severe outcomes including death. When girls become pregnant and give birth, they often lack proper prenatal care due to poverty and nutritional deficiencies, and their physical development may be incomplete. This puts them at higher risk compared to adult pregnant women for complications such as postpartum hemorrhage, obesity, mental health issues, fetal and neonatal mortality, and obstetric fistulas.

Girls aged 12 to 20 who give birth are at higher risk of their children dying before the age of five or experiencing health problems such as low birth weight and anemia. Additionally, infections such as rubella and AIDS, as well as conditions like obesity, nutritional deficiencies, and gestational diabetes, can negatively impact the health of the children born to adolescent mothers. Health-related behaviors, including alcohol use and smoking, also affect their children's health.

In regions like Africa and Southeast Asia, women who give birth at a young age and experience obstructed labor—a condition where the birth canal is not fully matured—face severe risks. In such cases, the fetal mortality rate can reach 95%, and the maternal mortality rate can be as high as 8%.

Therefore, providing focused healthcare services for fetuses and newborns before and after birth is crucial for improving maternal health and reducing infant mortality rates. More importantly, preventing child marriage and early pregnancies is essential to avoid the health issues and loss of educational opportunities that young mothers face.