Abortion Rates by Country 2024

According to the World Health Organization, roughly 73 million induced abortions occur worldwide each year, with 61% of all unintended pregnancies and 29% of all pregnancies in general ending with an abortion. The WHO also keeps a database of each country's abortion laws, policies, and level of abortion support in the health care system. Although abortions are not counted among the world's total number of deaths per day, they obviously reduce the total number of births per day.

Tracking the rate of abortion in various countries around the world is difficult because many nations do not record or report abortion rates. This is especially true in nations where abortion is illegal, and thus no official records are kept. One frequently cited database of abortion rates is the World Abortion Policies report released by the United Nations in 2005. This report detailed the number of abortions performed on women between the ages of 15 to 44 in a given country. The U.N. data offers a strong example of the shortcomings of abortion statistics: It covered fewer than a third of the United Nations' 193 countries and has become increasingly outdated, yet it remains some of the best data available. More recently, the nonprofit research and policy organization the Guttmacher Institute has endeavored to fill the gaps and produce updated and comprehansive per-country abortion statistics.

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Abortion Rates (annually per 1000 women) - Guttmacher 2019-22

Top 10 Countries with the Lowest Abortion Rates (annually per 1000 women) - Guttmacher 2019-22

Abortion rates in the United States

Despite a number of states banning abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe vs Wade in 2022, the Guttmacher Institute's research determined the abortion rate in the United States was 15.9 abortions per 1,000 women in 2023. However, specific abortion laws vary by state, from total bans to near-total availability. Because of different regulations on abortion and other factors, abortion rates also vary significantly between states.

The unusual relation between abortion rates and abortion frequency

Perhaps surprisingly, studies show that abortion rates are often higher in nations where abortion is illegal than they are in nations where it is legal. This is because abortion tends to be more readily available in wealthier, more developed nations, where women are less likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy—in large part because birth control and proper sexual education are also widely available and sexual crimes are less common.

Conversely, women in developing and least-developed countries, who tend to have decreased access to birth control and education, but who are more often the victims of sexual crimes, are three times more likely to experience an unplanned pregnancy. Yet, 93 percent of the countries with the most restrictive abortion laws are developing nations.

As a result of these factors, the market for abortions is greater in underdeveloped countries even when abortion is legally prohibited. With no legal recourse, pregnant women in these countries often turn to unlicensed and illegal abortion clinics to obtain an abortion. Illegal abortions are more dangerous than legal abortions, as they tend to be conducted by people with less training, and they come with higher risks and complications, including the risk of death of the mother. Ultimately, according to the World Health Organization, roughly 45% of all abortions are unsafe, and 97% of those unsafe abortions are performed in developing countries.