- Adolescent pregnancies are more likely to occur in marginalized communities, commonly driven by poverty and lack of education and employment opportunities
- In many societies, girls are under pressure to marry and bear children early
- In least developed countries, at least 39% of girls marry before they are 18 years of age and 12% before the age of 15
- In many places girls choose to become pregnant because they have limited educational and employment prospects
- Often, in such societies, motherhood is valued and marriage or union and childbearing may be the best of the limited options available
- An additional cause of unintended pregnancy is sexual violence, which is widespread with more than a third of girls in some countries reporting that their first sexual encounter was coerced.