In 2025 an estimated 18.5% of women aged 20 to 24 had been married or in a union before age 18, down from 22% in 2015, and although the decline has sped up, child marriage is still far from ending by the 2030 target.
Updated October 14, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 girls and women alive today who were married as children, how many live in South Asia?
18.5%
Young women married before age 18
Share of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in a union before 18, nearly 1 in 5. Down from 22.0% in 2015. UNICEF modelled estimate based on 119 countries.
Data year 2025. Source: UN Statistics Division, 2026
640 million
Girls and women alive who were married as children
Including about 290 million in South Asia and 127 million in sub-Saharan Africa. About 12 million girls became child brides in 2022.
Data year 2022. Source: UNICEF, 2023
115 million
Boys and men married as children
About 1 in 5 of them, 23 million, married before age 15. About 1 in 30 young men married before 18, compared with 1 in 5 young women. Estimate from data for 82 countries.
Data year 2019. Source: UNICEF, 2019
UNICEF modelled estimates as published in the UN SDG Global Database in 2026, based on household surveys from 2016 to 2025 in 119 countries covering 82% of women aged 20 to 24, with adjustments for countries without data. The series is re-estimated as new surveys arrive, so values differ slightly from earlier UNICEF reports (for example 23% in 2012 and 19% in 2022 in the 2023 report). 2025 is the latest estimate, not a projection.
SDG target 5.3 aims to eliminate child marriage by 2030. UNICEF judged in 2023 that the decline was not fast enough to reach it. Using its 2023 estimates, UNICEF calculated that progress would need to be 20 times faster to meet the target, and that at the rate of progress at that time, ending child marriage would take about 300 years.
Sub-Saharan Africa's share of the world's new child marriages has grown from 15% about 25 years ago to 35%, and UNICEF projects it will reach 41% by 2030 as progress there lags behind South Asia.
Source: UNICEF, 2023Progress has favoured the better-off. Worldwide, girls from the richest households account for three times as many averted child marriages as girls from the poorest, and in sub-Saharan Africa all of the gains have been among the richest families.
Source: UNICEF, 2023Boys are married as children far less often than girls, but rates are high in some countries: the Central African Republic has the highest prevalence among males, at 28%, followed by Nicaragua at 19% and Madagascar at 13%.
Source: UNICEF, 2019National averages can hide local hotspots. In Lebanon, 58% of young women in settlements of displaced Syrians were married as children, compared with 15% in Beirut.
Source: UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, 2026Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in % of women aged 20–24.
Share of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in a union before 18, from household surveys (SDG indicator 5.3.1). Values are the latest year available per country, so years differ (2010 to 2025, most from 2015 or later); older surveys are hidden, and there are no data for many high-income countries. A country average can hide much higher rates in some regions or communities.
Source: UNICEF and DHS Program, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateThe share of young women married before 18 fell from 24.2% in 2005 to 18.5% in 2025, and in South Asia from 48.8% to 25.2%. Sub-Saharan Africa moved much less, from 38.3% to 30.7%, with almost no change before 2015.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateA UNICEF-commissioned review of 20 years of evidence found that support for school costs reduced child marriage in all 5 studies and conditional cash transfers for schooling in 8 of 11. But only 31 prevention evaluations existed, and multicomponent programmes succeeded in only 4 of 11.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowThe main UN programme works in 12 high-prevalence countries and supported 9.8 million girls to stay in or return to school in 2025. Because of funding cuts, its target for 2025 was lowered to 12 million girls reached, down from 16 million reached in 2024.
Prevalence comes from large household surveys, and the world estimate covers 119 countries with 82% of young women, but values for countries without recent surveys are modelled. Data on boys come from an older analysis of 82 countries, and some regions rely on surveys that are several years old.
The UN reports that child marriage declined twice as fast in 2015–2024 as in the previous decade. But progress is slow in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Northern Africa and Western Asia, and nearly one in five young women was still married as a child.
Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union in which at least one partner is under 18. UNICEF estimates that 640 million girls and women alive today were married as children, and that about 12 million girls became child brides in 2022 alone. The practice is slowly becoming less common: the share of women aged 20 to 24 who were married before 18 fell from 24.2% in 2005 to 22.0% in 2015 and 18.5% in 2025, and the share married before 15 fell from 7.8% to 4.2% over the same twenty years. Boys are also affected, though far less often: in 2019 UNICEF estimated that 115 million boys and men had been married as children.
Child marriage is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where 31% of young women were married before 18 in 2025, and in South Asia, at 25%. Because of its large population, South Asia is home to about 45% of all girls and women married as children, and India alone to about a third. West and Central Africa has made little progress in 25 years and has 7 of the 10 countries with the highest rates. Marrying as a child can end a girl's education, limit her later earnings, lead to early motherhood and leave her isolated in a relationship in which she has little power to claim her rights. Progress has mostly reached girls from richer families, and conflict and climate shocks are linked to rises in child marriage.
SDG target 5.3 calls for the elimination of harmful practices, including child, early and forced marriage, and UNICEF is the agency responsible for tracking it. The official indicator looks back at the experience of young adult women rather than counting marriages as they happen. Four elements shape the figures:
The age line is 18
A marriage counts as a child marriage if it took place before the person's 18th birthday. The indicator also reports marriages before age 15, the earliest and most harmful form: worldwide, 4.2% of women aged 20 to 24 in 2025 had been married before 15.
Informal unions count too
The definition includes informal unions in which a couple lives together as if married, not only formal marriages. Survey questions therefore ask about the age at which a woman first married or began living with a partner.
Measured among women aged 20 to 24
SDG indicator 5.3.1 is the share of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18. Asking women who have recently passed 18 captures the full experience of childhood while still reflecting recent practice.
Survey-based, modelled estimates
Country figures come from household surveys such as DHS and MICS. The 2025 world estimate is modelled from data collected between 2016 and 2025 in 119 countries covering 82% of women aged 20 to 24, with adjustments for countries without data. Estimates for boys come from a separate analysis of 82 countries.
What works
Covering school fees, uniforms or stipends reduced child marriage in all 5 evaluations of this approach reviewed for UNICEF. The UN's main child marriage programme also describes keeping girls in school as its most effective intervention.
Limits
The evidence rests on a handful of studies. There is no evidence yet on whether supply-side measures, such as building more secondary schools, better transport, more female teachers or better teaching, prevent child marriage.
What works
Cash payments to families on condition that their daughters attend school delayed marriage in 8 of 11 evaluations reviewed for UNICEF. They address the economic pressure that leads some families to marry daughters early.
Limits
Unconditional cash given only to reduce poverty showed no effect on child marriage in the 3 evaluations reviewed. Large programmes are costly and need well-functioning schools and payment systems to work.
What works
Safe spaces, life-skills training and comprehensive sexuality education aim to give girls knowledge, confidence and support networks. The UN programme reached 7.3 million adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 this way in 2025, including girls who were already married or mothers.
Limits
Programmes that bundle several components showed positive effects on child marriage in only 4 of 11 evaluations reviewed for UNICEF, so reaching girls does not necessarily mean fewer marriages. Most programmes are small and have not been formally evaluated.
What works
Where marrying daughters early is expected, discussions with parents, religious and traditional leaders, and men and boys aim to change what communities see as acceptable. In 2025 the UN programme engaged 14.2 million people in community dialogue and group education, and 5.7 million men and boys in group sessions on gender norms.
Limits
Results are reported as numbers of people reached rather than as measured changes in marriage rates. Norms change slowly, and economic pressure can keep child marriage going even where attitudes shift.
What works
A legal minimum age of 18 for everyone, without exceptions, sets a clear standard and gives authorities, communities and girls a basis to act. More countries have improved their laws in recent years, and more than two thirds of child marriages are already illegal under national law.
Limits
Studies document exceptions in the law, conflicts with customary law and too little awareness and capacity to enforce it, and the evidence shows little relationship between legislation and child marriage rates.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Some programmes link child marriage prevention to national social protection schemes, combining cash or in-kind support with referrals to education, health and protection services. The UN programme highlights models from India, Ghana, Ethiopia and Niger, and supported 3.3 million adolescent girls through social protection and economic empowerment in 2025. Their effect on marriage rates at national scale has not yet been shown.
A few programmes give families an asset on condition that a daughter's marriage is delayed. The review for UNICEF found only 3 studies of this approach, with a success rate of about 50%, so the authors call for more research.
Most programmes aim to prevent marriage, but millions of girls are already married. Support that reduces the harm, for example through schooling, economic opportunities or reproductive health services, is much less studied: the review for UNICEF found only 3 evaluations, all in sub-Saharan Africa, and no agreed definition of such support.
UNFPA and UNICEF finalised a dedicated child marriage survey in 2025 to support monitoring, while their programme is reforming its results framework to measure changes in outcomes rather than numbers reached. Results from the survey have not yet been reported.
Implementation gap
In 2024 the UN's main child marriage programme received US$21.1 million of a US$37.4 million funding target, 56%, and it lowered its 2025 reach target as global aid declined.
Implementation gap
Girls from the richest households account for three times as many averted child marriages as girls from the poorest. In sub-Saharan Africa, where 1 in 3 young women married as a child, all of the progress has come among the richest families.
Coordination gap
UNICEF finds that every tenfold increase in conflict deaths is associated with a 7% rise in child marriage, and that a severe flood year in Pakistan could erase about five years of progress. Protecting girls in crises depends on humanitarian and development actors working together.
Implementation gap
More than two thirds of child marriages are illegal under national law, yet they continue. Exceptions in the law, conflicts with customary law and too little awareness and capacity to enforce it limit what legislation achieves.
Knowledge gap
A review of research from 2000 to 2019 found only 31 evaluations of prevention programmes, two from Latin America and none from the Middle East, and very little on how to design, deliver and scale up successful approaches.
Knowledge gap
National surveys come only every few years, figures for boys date from 2019, and national averages hide local hotspots, such as settlements of displaced people. In crises such as Gaza, verified data are not available.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Why have programmes that combine life skills, community dialogue and economic support so often failed to reduce child marriage in evaluations, while simpler school support has worked, and which combinations are worth scaling?
Which policies reduce child marriage among the poorest families, where progress has largely stalled, especially in West and Central Africa?
How do conflict, displacement, floods and droughts raise the risk of child marriage, and which humanitarian and social protection measures prevent the rise?
How common is child marriage among boys today, what drives it in the countries where it is frequent, and how does it affect their schooling and work?
Consider giving to organisations that help adolescent girls stay in secondary school, for example by covering fees or supporting their return after marriage or pregnancy, and that publish evaluations of their results.
Ask your elected representatives to protect aid and public budgets for girls' education, social protection and child protection, which are under pressure from funding cuts.
Find out whether your country allows marriage under 18 with exceptions, such as parental or court consent, and support organisations that work to close those exceptions.
If you think a child near you is at risk of being married, contact local child protection services or a national child helpline. If a child is in immediate danger, call the emergency services.
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UN Statistics Division (data from UNICEF), published 2026
Latest UNICEF modelled world and regional estimates for 2005–2025 (18.5% married before 18 and 4.2% before 15 in 2025), based on surveys from 2016 to 2025 in 119 countries covering 82% of women aged 20 to 24.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, published 2026
UN assessment of progress on child marriage: the decline in 2015–2024 was twice as fast as in the previous decade, with the highest rates in sub-Saharan Africa (31%) and Southern Asia (25%) and slow progress in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Northern Africa and Western Asia.
UNICEF, published 2023
UNICEF's latest full analysis of child marriage: 640 million girls and women alive married as children and their regional distribution, 12 million child brides in 2022, the 300-year and 20-times-faster estimates, the wealth gap in progress, and links with conflict and climate shocks.
UNICEF (press release, 7 June 2019), published 2019
UNICEF's only global estimate of child marriage among boys, based on data from 82 countries, with the countries where it is most common.
UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage, published 2026
Results of the main UN programme in 12 high-prevalence countries in 2025 (girls supported in school, life skills, community dialogue, social protection), its funding shortfall and cuts, and examples of subnational hotspots and data gaps.
UNICEF and UNFPA (Global Programme to End Child Marriage), authors A. Malhotra and S. Elnakib, published 2021
Review of 20 years of research, including 31 evaluations of prevention programmes, with success rates by type of intervention (school support, conditional and unconditional cash, asset transfers, multicomponent programmes) and gaps in the evidence on laws, scale and regions.