Abortions

Findings
Global Incidence
Approximately 46 million abortions were performed worldwide in 1995 (Table 1). Of these, about 26 million were legal and 20 million illegal.‡ The abortion rate worldwide was about 35 per 1,000 women aged 15–44. Of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages and stillbirths), 26% were terminated by abortion.§


Table 1. Estimated number of induced abortions, by legal status, percentage of all abortions that are illegal, abortion rate and abortion ratio, all according to region and subregion, 1995
Region and subregion No. of abortions (millions) % illegal Rate* Ratio†
Total Legal Illegal
Total 45.5 25.6 19.9 44 35 26
Developed regions 10.0 9.1 0.9 9 39 42
Excluding Eastern Europe 3.8 3.7 0.1 3 20 26
Developing regions 35.5 16.5 19.0 54 34 23
Excluding China 24.9 5.9 19.0 76 33 20
Africa 5.0 ‡ 5.0 99 33 15
Eastern Africa 1.9 ‡ 1.9 100 41 16
Middle Africa 0.6 ‡ 0.6 100 35 14
Northern Africa 0.6 ‡ 0.6 96 17 12
Southern Africa 0.2 ‡ 0.2 100 19 12
Western Africa 1.6 ‡ 1.6 100 37 15
Asia 26.8 16.9 9.9 37 33 25
Eastern Asia 12.5 12.5 ‡ § 36 34
South-central Asia 8.4 1.9 6.5 78 28 18
South-eastern Asia 4.7 1.9 2.8 60 40 28
Western Asia 1.2 0.7 0.5 42 32 20
Europe 7.7 6.8 0.9 12 48 48
Eastern Europe 6.2 5.4 0.8 13 90 65
Northern Europe 0.4 0.3 ‡ 8 18 23
Southern Europe 0.8 0.7 0.1 12 24 34
Western Europe 0.4 0.4 ‡ § 11 17
Latin America 4.2 0.2 4.0 95 37 27
Caribbean 0.4 0.2 0.2 47 50 35
Central America 0.9 ‡ 0.9 100 30 21
South America 3.0 ‡ 3.0 100 39 30
Northern America 1.5 1.5 ‡ § 22 26
Oceania 0.1 0.1 ‡ 22 21 20
*Abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44. †Abortions per 100 known pregnancies. (Known pregnancies are defined as abortions plus live births.) ‡Fewer than 50,000. §Less than 0.5%. Notes: Developed regions include Europe, Northern America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan; all others are considered developing. Regions are as defined by the United Nations (UN) (see Appendix). Numbers do not add to totals due to rounding. Sources: Populations--UN, The Sex and Age Distribution of the World Population, The 1996 Revision, New York: UN, 1997. Births--UN, World Population Prospects: The 1996 Revision, Annex II & III, Demographic indicators by major area, region and country, New York: UN, 1996. Illegal abortions-- WHO, 1998, op. cit. (see reference 4). Legal abortions--see text.