Adolescent and young adult health

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Top Highlights

• suicide is among the leading causes of death in people aged 15–19 years.

• Main health issues

• Over 1.5 million adolescents and young adults aged 10–24 years died in 2021, about 4500 every day.

• Globally, there were 42 births per 1000 to girls aged 15–19 years in 2021.

• Females generally have lower mortality rates for these ages than males.

• Drowning

• Violence

• It causes nearly a third of all adolescent male deaths in low- and middle-income countries in the WHO Region of the Americas.

• Violence during adolescence also increases the risks of injury, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, mental health problems, poor school performance and dropout, early pregnancy, reproductive health problems, and communicable and noncommunicable diseases.

• Alcohol and drug use

• more than a quarter of all people aged 15–19 years are current drinkers, amounting to 155 million adolescents.

• Tobacco use

• at least 1 in 10 adolescents aged 13–15 years uses tobacco, although there are areas where this figure is much higher.

• Mental health

• Violence, poverty, stigma, exclusion, and living in humanitarian and fragile settings can increase the risk of developing mental health problems.

• Diarrhoea and lower respiratory tract infections (pneumonia) are estimated to be among the top five causes of death for adolescents 10–14 years, with mortality rates being particularly high in African low- and middle-income countries.

• Thanks to improved childhood vaccination, adolescent deaths and disability from measles have fallen markedly

• Early pregnancy and childbirth

• Approximately 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777 000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions

• Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are among the leading causes of death for girls aged 15–19 years globally.