Aust teen pregnancy rate too high: report

A new global report on childhood circumstances by Save the Children says Australia needs to do more to reduce its rate of teenage pregnancies.

Migrant and refugee women still experience stillbirth at much higher rates than other women in Australia. Source: AAP

Australia has slightly improved conditions for vulnerable children over the past 20 years, but the country's teenage pregnancy rate remains too high.

A global report by nonprofit organisation Save the Children ranks Australia 15th overall for children's access to health care, education, nutrition and protection from harmful practices like child labour and child marriage.

The report says the world is making progress in dealing with "childhood enders" - life-changing events like child marriage, early pregnancy, exclusion from education, sickness, malnutrition and violent deaths.

"However there are still more than 690 million children who have been robbed of a childhood," Save The Children Australia chief executive Paul Ronalds said on Wednesday.

He said too many children suffered from conflict, from having to drop out of school and work to feed their families, and being forced into an early marriage.

Australia's ranking for teenage mothers sits about the same as Malaysia and Bahrain, but just below the United Kingdom.

One in four teenage mothers identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

The report said results for indigenous Australian children were troubling, as they are twice as likely to die during early childhood as non-indigenous children. They also have significantly lower school attendance rates.

Circumstances for children have improved in all but three of 176 countries since 2000, Save the Children said, but more than 30 million children had been displaced by conflict and war in 2017.