The World Bank collects all sorts of socio-economic indicators for many countries, and FRED is proud to feature them. The series we discuss here is the adolescent fertility rate, defined as the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19. The graph shows the rate for one country in each of the five most-populous continents. It is remarkable that the rate has been decreasing in all countries (although the trend isn’t nearly as pronounced in the Republic of Congo). One can think of many reasons for this. Among the most salient are the increase in schooling and educational opportunities among girls, adoption of new forms of birth control, and more generally the emancipation of women worldwide.

How this graph was created: Search for fertility and select the “15 to 19 years” tag at the left. Select the countries you want to display and click “Add to Graph.” Use the “move up / move down” option at the bottom of the graph tab for each series to match the order of the series in the legend with the order in the graph.

Suggested by Christian Zimmermann