Mexico has made strides in the last 10 years on diminishing teenage pregnancies. A study by the Swedish doctor and researcher Hans Rosling, with data from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators Online, shows how in Mexico teenage pregnancies rate per thousand women aged 15 to 19, has significantly lowered.

Today, there are 65.84 pregnancies per thousand teen women, while in 1996, 77.8 were observed; twelve teen pregnancies less per every thousand women each year.

Overall, Latin America has still high rates of teenage pregnancy. Moreover, according to Rosling, the Americas has high rates compared with the rest of the developed world. Of course, there are differences within the continent. Brazil, for example, is far from Mexican standards, with a teenage pregnancy rate of 89.36 per thousand inhabitants. On the other hand, Chile and Argentina have lower rates than Mexico with 60 and 57.7 respectively.

What’s interesting here to observe is the velocity with which these figures have moved lately. Particularly in Mexico, it has had a significant improvement in the last ten years compared with other countries. Spain, for example, a country with a higher per capita income has had an increase in teen pregnancies by 1.47 in the last decade. On the other hand, in LatinAmerica, Brazil rates are exactly the same as nine years ago, no advance whatsoever. With a fertility rate of 89 pregnancies per thousand women, Brazil has 37% more teen pregnancies than Mexico.

Apart from countries differences, this figure is not easily modified and seems to be related not only to the country’s income level. Evidence to support this is the relatively high rate of pregnancies that the United States has when compared to England. The United States has 34% more income per capita than England, and yet almost twice the number of teen pregnancies per thousand.

In general, according to Rosling, considering income levels, America as a continent, has a higher rate of teenage pregnancy than Europe. Africa has rates that surpass the 200 teen pregnancies per thousand women.

As a country, Mexico has definitely improved and there is still room for improvement. However, mexico is definitely on the right way, along a path that presents great challenges for all countries.

Clearly, Mexico has a teenage fertility rate that is closer to first world than to that of developing, and continues to improve. Why then do we insist that Mexico is a country comparable to the BRIC group, with the third world? Mexico is doing the job and obtaining first tier results on efforts challenging to all, developed and developing countries. This is how the OECD lives Mexico, this is how other countries live Mexico and this is what statistics show. Begin to aknowledge where Mexico really is standing and live it that way!