PSA: 233 girls below 18 years old married in 2023

Over 200 girls aged 17 and below got married in 2023, more than thrice than the boys their age who did so in the same year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

In a data dissemination forum, PSA Vital Statistics Division officer in charge Marjorie Villaver said that in 2023, there were 233 girls and 71 boys below 18 years old who had their marriages registered. 

For those who got wed, the youngest female was aged 13, while the youngest male was 12 years old.

In 2023, a total of 12,630 marriages also involved adolescent females below 20 years old. This was four times the number of marriages involving adolescent males at 3,058.

Of the 12,630 adolescent females, 54% married men aged 20 to 24 years, while 22.5% married men who were 25 to 29 years old.

Meanwhile, registered marriages between adolescent males and females accounted for 1,723 or 4% of the total marriages in the country.

PSA chief and national statistician Claire Dennis Mapa also raised concern regarding the marriages and pregnancies involving teenagers.

“Recent data from the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics indicates that in 2023, approximately 10% of total registered births were from mothers aged 19 and below. One for every 10 births are from mothers 19 and below. An alarming statistic that underscored the need for focused intervention,” he said. 

Since the global pandemic, PSA said that the number of mothers aged 10 to 14 has been increasing at an alarming rate. From 2,113 in 2020, the number of registered live births among these very young adolescent mothers rose to 2,320 in 2021.

The number further grew to 3,135 in 2022, and to 3,343 in 2023.

Meanwhile, as to those 15 to 19 years old, the trend for live births has been going up and down—from 154,947 in 2020, declining to 133,982 in 2021. It rose to 147,003 in 2022, and dipped again to 138,933 in 2023.

In 2022, then President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11596, a law which seeks to end child marriage in the Philippines.

The law defines child marriage as any marriage entered into where one or both parties are children (under 18 years of age), and solemnized in civil or church proceedings, or in any recognized traditional, cultural, or customary manner. It shall include an informal or cohabitation outside of wedlock between an adult and a child, or between children.

The law states the following as unlawful and prohibited acts: facilitation of child marriage, solemnization of child marriage, and cohabitation of an adult with a child outside wedlock. — RF, GMA Integrated News