Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique has the fourth highest birth rate in the world for girls aged 15 to 19, according to a United Nations report which also sees the Mozambican population doubling in 25 years.
According to the 2025 State of World Population report, presented in Maputo on Tuesday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and accessed by Lusa today, the teenage birth rate from 2001 to 2024 reached 158 per thousand Mozambican girls, behind only the Central African Republic (184), Equatorial Guinea (176), and Angola (163).
In Mozambique, the fertility rate is 4.6 children per woman, compared to 5.0 in Angola, 5.8 in Niger and the Central African Republic, and 5.9 in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to the report, the Mozambican population is estimated to reach 35.6 million this year, with 44% aged 14 or under and only 3% over 65.
In Mozambique, the report indicates a 25-year timeframe for doubling of the current population, surpassed only by Ukraine (19 years), Syria (20 years), Somalia (21 years), Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Niger (22 years), and Yemen (24 years).
Mozambican women have an average life expectancy of 67 years and men have 61.
In the report’s presentation, UNFPA Representative in Mozambique, Nélida Rodrigues, urges: “We must shift the conversation from how many children people have to whether they have the power to decide freely and equally.”
UNFPA states that the report highlights an “urgent reality” in which “millions of people want to have children” but “face obstacles such as economic insecurity, gender inequality, and lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services”.
Among other factors, the report’s data suggests that only one in three Mozambican women has the capacity to make decisions about the number of children they have, due to difficulties in accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Furthermore, on average, one child in each family is born from an unplanned pregnancy.
Furthermore, UNFPA highlights the high rate of premature unions, which affect almost half of girls (48%) who give birth for the first time before the age of 18.
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