Global birth rate falls 76 percent for girls age 10-14

“A recent analysis of birth records and household survey data found that the global birth rate among girls aged 10–14 fell by 76 percent between 1990 and 2023, dropping from 4.5 annual births per 1,000 girls to 1.1. Among girls aged 15–19, the rate fell by 48 percent, from 74.7 annual births per 1,000 girls to 39,” reports Human Progress.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information explains: “We produce annual estimates of age-specific fertility rates (ASFR) for girls aged 10-14 and 15-19 from 1950 to 2023 for the world, regions and 201 countries and territories…Between 1990 and 2023, global ASFR for girls aged 10-14 decreased by 76%, from 4.5 to 1.1 births per 1000, while ASFR for girls aged 15-19 fell by 48%, from 74.7 to 39.0 births per 1000. In 2023, births to mothers aged 10-14 years were estimated at 347 thousand, and for those aged 15-19 years at 12.2 million. The number of births among adolescents aged 15-19 in sub-Saharan Africa increased during 1990-2023 due to population growth and slower fertility declines.”

In other news, orangutan births are bolstering a critically endangered species. “Eight orangutans have been born at US zoos since the beginning of 2025 through the Orangutan Species Survival Plan, a long-standing coordination effort among zoos that aims to maintain a healthy and genetically diverse captive population of the critically endangered ape,” noted The Doomslayer.

An orangutan used a medicinal plant to heal his injury. “When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound — and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury,” reported NPR.

“This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant,” said biologist Isabelle Laumer,.

An orangutan named Rakus did this in a national park in Indonesia, in its big island of Sumatra. He apparently received the wound in a fight with another male orangutan:

few days later, he was seen using a plant to treat his injury. The wound then healed, seemingly without any infection….Around a month after applying medicine to his wound, Rakus has fully healed, with only a slightly noticeable scar. This photo was taken roughly two months after the injury was first spotted.

Rakus was spotted with the new wound on June 22, 2022. Three days later, he started eating the stem and leaves of a liana — a vine that researchers say the orangutan population in Suaq rarely eats. From there, his behavior grew increasingly intentional and specific.

Rakus spent 13 minutes eating the plant, and then he spent seven minutes chewing the leaves and not swallowing, instead daubing the plant’s juices onto his wound. When flies began landing on his wound, Rakus fully covered it with leaf material and went back to eating the plant.

Five days later, the wound had closed. Three weeks later, “the wound appeared to have fully healed and only a faint scar remained,” noted a paper by biologists published in Scientific Reports.