WHERE DOES CHILD MARRIAGE HAPPEN?
Child marriage happens in almost every country in the world, and across all religions, cultures, and ethnicities.
The highest rates of child marriage occur in West and Central Africa, where an average of 32% of 20-24 year old women were married as children, and East and Central Africa at 30%.*
*UNICEF calculates the rate of child marriage by assessing the percentage of women aged 20 to 24 years who got married before age 18, as this means that there is no longer any possibility of them having a child marriage (as they are now all adults), and they are more likely to be open about the age at which they got married. This information comes from national surveys.
REGION
West and Central Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa
South Asia
Latin American and the Caribbean
Middle East and North Africa
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
East Asia and Pacific
WORLD
GIRLS MARRIED BY AGE 18
32%
30%
26%
21%
17%
9%
8%
19%
GIRLS MARRIED BY AGE 15
11%
8%
6%
4%
3%
1%
1%
4%
These are the ten countries with the highest percentages of girls married as children, based on the latest available data.
COUNTRY
Niger
Central African Republic
Chad
Mali
Mozambique
South Sudan
Burkina Faso
Bangladesh
Guinea
Somalia
AGE 18
76%
61%
61%
54%
53%
52%
51%
51%
47%
45%
AGE 15
28%
26%
24%
16%
17%
9%
9%
16%
17%
8%
YEAR OF DATA
2012
2018-2019
2019
2018
2015
2010
2015
2019
2018
2006
Due to the size of the population, India is the country with the highest number of child marriages, with almost 27 million women and children impacted. India is home to a third of all women worldwide who were married as children.
It’s also important to understand that there can be enormous differences in the rates of child marriage within a country. Girls who live in cities and towns are less likely to get married as children compared to girls who live in rural or remote areas. Although the global rate of child marriage is 19%, the global rural rate is 27.3% compared to 13.7% in cities and towns (or ‘urban’ areas). In sub-Saharan Africa, which is the region which has the highest prevalence of child marriage at 31%, the difference between rural and urban areas is enormous: 16.8% of girls in urban areas are married as children, compared to 40.4% of girls in rural areas.
