Ten percent of Gambian women between the ages of 25 and 49 had their first sexual intercourse at exactly 15 years of age with five percent of the men having their first sex at the same exact age, according to the 2019-2020 Demographic and Health Survey.
The survey which investigates the demographic and health situation of The Gambia covered 2019 and 2021 and was implemented by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics. The report was launched on Tuesday.
In the report, early marriage among women in The Gambia is relatively common as roughly one in five young women aged 15 to 19 are currently in union, compared with less than one percent of men in the same age group.
Still, the survey’s findings on the age at first sexual intercourse showed ten percent of women aged 25 to 49 had sexual intercourse by age 15 while five percent of the men had sex by age 15.
The survey also said 44% of women aged between 25 and 49 had intercourse by age 18 while 67 percent of the men in the same age bracket had their first sexual intercourse by age 25.
