MANILA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Teenage pregnancy incidence in the Philippines has decreased but remains a concern, said the country's official agency Commission on Population and Development on Wednesday.

"The decrease in teenage pregnancy remains a cause of concern surrounding girls 15 to 19 years old, and more so for those younger, as the latter has an increasing trend in the number of births as the yearly civil registration data showed," Lisa Grace Bersales, the commission's chief, said.

The commission closely monitors teenagers aged between 10 and 14 who are still considered children, while the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) did not include children under 15, she said.

"We need to work more on our teenagers to lessen, if not make zero, pregnancies among them. As we have always maintained, 'Each teenage pregnancy is still one too many,'" Bersales added.

The government survey said the spacing between children's births widened from 36.8 months in 2018 to 46.5 months in 2022. Bersales said the data "greatly promotes better health and well-being for Filipino mothers and their young children."

In January, the PSA said teenage pregnancy among Filipinos aged 15 to 19 in the Philippines declined from 8.6 percent in 2017 to 5.4 percent in 2022.

In 2022, the data showed that 19-year-olds had the highest pregnancy percentage recorded at 13.3 percent, followed by those aged 18 at 5.9 percent and 17 at 5.6 percent. The lowest teenage pregnancy rate was among those aged 16 and 15.

The data showed that teenage pregnancy was lower in urban areas at 4.8 percent than in rural areas at 6.1 percent. Enditem

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