Better education of girls in school is the reason China's percentage of births by mothers in the 15-19-year age bracket is so low, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) representative to China said.

"The number of teenage births has fallen in China because of later marriage due to education," Yin Yin Nwe said. "It shows that the country has made great efforts in women and children protection."

About 140,000 girls aged 15 to 19 give birth in China each year, accounting for 1 percent of the world total, according to the UNICEF report, whose Chinese version was issued on Friday.

Child or early marriage, which refers to marriages and unions where one or both partners are under 18, is behind the big number of young mothers, the report said.

Tian Xueyuan, a researcher at the China Institute of Population under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said child marriages do exist in China, especially in rural or remote mountainous areas.

She said many rural Chinese families maintain the long-standing tradition of early marriage either out of economic necessity, or because they believe marriage will extend girls' childbearing years or ensure obedience to their husband's household.

Tian agreed that such early marriages would result in premature pregnancy and motherhood, "but with social development and better education, the practice is decreasing in China," she said.

Other figures from UNICEF demonstrate progress in the development of Chinese women. In 1990, 89 out of each 100,000 women died in childbirth in China, but the number decreased to 43 in 2002. The world average is about 400 per 100,000.

Nwe said UNICEF's research also found that in China, about 60 to 70 percent of the women participate in important family decisions. By comparison, more than half of the women are doing so in only 10 of the 30 other countries surveyed.

(China Daily December 16, 2006)