November 20, 2015 4:00pm by David Farrar

Young Mothers

An interesting publication by Stats NZ on young mothers and the workforce.Their findings include:

3% of women aged 15 to 19 are mothers
The proportion of 20 to 24 year old women becoming mothers has fallen from 25% in 1994 to 20% in 2014
Two thirds of teen mothers are sole parents
Teen mothers by ethnicity are Maori 6.1%, Pacific 4.2%, European 2.3% and Asian 0.8%
20 to 24 year old mothers by ethnicity are Maori 38%, Pacific 30%, European 17.5% and Asian 6.9%
20 to 24 year old sole mothers by ethnicity are Maori 23%, Pacific 16%, European 8.4% and Asian 1.6%
82% of teenage women who are not parents are in education compared to 29% of teenage mothers
For 20-24 year olds the proportions in education are women (no kids) 45%, men 39%, sole mothers 22%, partnered mothers 14%

Wouldn’t NZ be so much better off if all of NZ had the same young mother rate as Asian New Zealanders?