Rural girls get pregnant earlier than urban ones

Teenage pregnancies among girls in rural areas is still high as one in 10 give birth each year, statistics from the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) 2015 have indicated.

In 2010, 28% of adolescent girls from rural areas were already mothers compared to 16,4% of their counterparts in urban centres.

For 2015, the percentage for the urban adolescent dropped to 10,3%, but for the rural adolescent girls, it was still high at 27,2%.

Although not enough research has been done to establish why rural teenagers fall pregnant more than their urban counterparts, data suggested that low education levels in rural areas were a contributing factor, with most rural girls hardly going beyond primary education.

"Adolescent pregnancy varies widely according to wealth, geographic location and education," United Nations sentative Cheikh Tidiane Cisse said during the launch of the preliminary report in Harare last Friday.

Health experts believe that teenagers were more likely to suffer complications during pregnancy.

Their babies were more likely to be born prematurely, have low birth weight or disabilities.