According to recent figures from the Department of Statistics, unmarried mothers account for 60 per cent of all births in the Bahamas with most of the births from women aged 25 to 29 and about 12 per cent from teenaged girls.
The Vital Statistics Report for 2008 indicated that about 12 per cent of registered births were to teenage mothers with about ten per cent of these to girls under 15.
In 2008, 20 per cent of all registered births were to non-Bahamian women with 79 per cent of those being of Haitian origin.
There were 5,480 live births in 2008, down from 5,854 in 2007. The proportion of births registered rose from 87 per cent in 2007, to just over 93 per cent in 2008.
More girls were born than boys in 2008 – 97 boys to every 100 girl births were recorded.
1,863 deaths were recorded in 2008, (crude death rate of 5.5) with higher mortality amongst men than women.
The number one cause of death was hypertensive and heart diseases with the second highest being cancer.
