Underage marriages appear to have increased in Malaysia in recent years, according to the United Nations Millenium Development Goals report for Malaysia.

It based this conclusion mainly on the statistics from the Malaysian Population Census of 2000 and 2010.

The 2000 Population Census showed that 1.2 percent of married women were between the ages of 15 and 19, with a further estimated 6,800 girls below the age of 15 recorded as married.

In 2010, the number had risen to 1.4 percent of married women between the ages of 15 and 19, while 1.2 percent of all married men were in the same age group.

The 2010 census did not have any information on married girls below the age of 15, the report said.

Other than the census data, the report also said that health registration statistics of teenage mothers who go for prenatal screenings at public health facilities also contributed to shedding light on the number of underage marriages.

These statistics showed that there were more than 18,000 visits for teenage mothers in 2011 and 2012, the report said.

"This translates to about four percent of all new prenatal cases and 0.7 percent of females aged 10 to 19 who are pregnant in each year.

"Of this, 78 percent claimed to be married, hence implying that 0.5 percent of the female population aged 10 to 19 was essentially married and pregnant," the report stated.

It raised concerns that this is linked to child and maternal health and pointed out that statistics also show that underage rape cases have also increased.

"These statistics warrant further investigation as it can potentially undermine the advancement of young women and men in development," it said.

Despite the decline in reported rape offences in recent years, the report noted that more than half of them involved victims who were aged 16 and below.

"Equally of concern is the increase in younger men and boys as the alleged perpetrators of rape," it said.

In 2013, it said, about 21 percent of rape cases involved perpetrators below the age of 18, which is a significant increase from 1997 where it was only 2.5 percent.