Country-specific data on the contraceptive needs of adolescents

1 and the Global strategy for women's, children's and adolescents' health 2016–2030 2 have placed renewed emphasis on understanding and addressing the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents. Although they are the largest cohort of adolescents in history, to date, we know relatively little about their contraceptive needs. This is particularly true for unmarried adolescents as data for them are rarely reported, even when collected. As the SDGs and the global strategy 2 require country-level tracking of indicators related to contraception, including met need, 3 a key question is " What can be done to support adolescents to prevent unintended pregnancy? " To answer this question, we developed country-specific fact sheets 4 describing adolescent contraceptive use and non-use in 58 low-and middle-income countries spanning all six World Health Organization Regions. The data in the fact sheets come from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program, 5 which routinely conducts nationally representative surveys in conjunction with country governments. All data in the fact sheets are publicly available. To better understand the demographic situation of adolescents in each country, we provide information on the total number of adolescents, 6 where they predominantly live (rural or urban), 6 their average years of schooling, their average age at first birth, their average age at first union (i.e. married or living together) and their average age at first sex. Additionally, we provide estimates on the total number of male and female adolescents that are currently sexually active (i.e. reporting sex in the last three months or in a union) and the proportion of unmarried adolescents that are currently sexually active, disaggregated by sex. Taken together, these provide a crucial first step to understanding pregnancy risk, both within and outside unions at the country level. To help policy-makers and programme managers understand the heterogeneity of adolescents' contraceptive needs, we provide evidence to plan for how, when and where different groups of sexually active adolescents use and do not use contraception. Data on current 15–19 year old adolescent girls' contraceptive use and non-use by method type are presented by marital status. Contraceptive methods include traditional (withdrawal or abstinence) and modern methods (spermicides, female condom, male condom, standard days/cycle beads, oral contraceptives, injectable contraceptives, lactational amenorrhea, implants, intrauterine device [IUD], male sterilization or female sterilization). Both within and across countries, there are significant variations in the types of methods used by adolescents – ranging from traditional methods …