More than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, and although the share of adolescent girls affected fell from about 46% to 31% over three decades in the countries with data, the decline would need to be 27 times faster to end the practice by 2030.
Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
In the 31 countries with national data on female genital mutilation, how many out of every 100 girls aged 15 to 19 had undergone it in 2023?
230 million+
Girls and women alive who have undergone FGM
About 144 million in Africa, 80 million in Asia and 6 million in the Middle East, plus an estimated 1 to 2 million in small communities and diaspora groups elsewhere. 30 million more than the estimate published eight years earlier.
Data year 2024. Source: UNICEF, 2024
4.5 million
Girls at risk in 2026
UN projection of the number of girls at risk of being cut during 2026, many of them under age five.
Data year 2026. Source: UNFPA, UNICEF, OHCHR, UN Women, WHO and UNESCO, 2026
52 million
Cut by health workers
About 1 in 4 girls and women who have undergone FGM were cut by health personnel, according to estimates for 2020. WHO calls this medicalisation a growing concern.
Data year 2020. Source: World Health Organization, 2025
UNICEF modelled estimates as published in the UN SDG Global Database, based on household surveys from 2004 to 2024 in 25 countries covering 69% of the region's girls aged 15 to 19, with adjustments for countries without data. No world series is published because only about 31 countries collect the data. 2024 is the latest estimate, not a projection.
SDG target 5.3 aims to eliminate female genital mutilation by 2030. The UN estimates that the decline would need to be 27 times faster than in the past decade to reach that goal; in 2020 the estimate was at least 10 times faster. UNICEF calculates that more than 1 million cases a year could be prevented if every country matched the pace of its best-performing peer.
About 4 in 10 girls and women who have undergone FGM live in fragile or conflict-affected countries, with the largest numbers in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sudan.
Source: United Nations General Assembly, 2024Progress varies widely between countries. Among girls aged 15 to 19, prevalence in Burkina Faso fell from 83% to 32% over three decades, while in the Gambia it barely moved, from 74% to 73%, and in Somalia the practice remains almost universal.
Source: United Nations General Assembly, 2024Girls are being cut at younger ages, many before their fifth birthday, which leaves them no chance to take part in the decision.
Source: UNICEF, 2024Africa is home to about 63% of the world's girls and women who have undergone FGM and Asia to about 35%, but in Asia, recognition of the problem and the evidence base remain limited.
Source: UNFPA and UNICEF, 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 15–49.
Share of girls and women aged 15 to 49 who have undergone FGM, from household surveys (SDG indicator 5.3.2). Only about 30 countries collect these data, so most of the map is blank even though the practice is also reported in other countries, including Indonesia (whose 2021 survey is not in this dataset), other parts of Asia and countries of migration. Values are the latest survey per country, so years differ (2010 to 2023); the national average says nothing about individual communities, and some surveys could not reach insecure areas.
Source: UNICEF, DHS and MICS, 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?
ModerateIn the 31 countries with data, the share of girls aged 15 to 19 who had undergone FGM fell from just over 46% in 1993 to just over 31% in 2023. Because populations are growing, the total number of girls and women affected still rose to over 230 million.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateCommunity-led programmes, laws and health-sector guidance are well established, and WHO issued an updated guideline in 2025. But the UN notes that a ban alone is not enough, and much programme reporting counts people reached rather than measured changes in the practice.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowThe main UN programme works in 18 countries and provided prevention or protection services to about 2.2 million girls and women in 2025, a small share of those at risk. Its funding fell by 45% that year, and it estimates that funding for ending FGM would need to rise fivefold.
Large household surveys give solid estimates for about 31 countries, but the practice is reported in 92, and many of those, including countries of migration, have no national data. Some surveys could not reach insecure areas, and Somalia's figure refers only to women who have heard of FGM.
Half of the progress over 30 years came in the past decade, and several countries have made rapid gains. At the same time, funding for the main UN programme fell by 45% in 2025, legal bans face organised challenges, and medicalisation is rising.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) covers all procedures that remove or injure parts of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. WHO describes it as a severe violation of girls' rights, and it causes harm no matter who performs it, with short- and long-term health problems that can include risks in childbirth and a need for mental health care. UNICEF estimated in 2024 that more than 230 million girls and women alive had undergone it, 30 million more (a 15% increase) than in the estimate released eight years earlier. The rise reflects the fact that the number of girls born in countries where the practice is common is growing faster than the practice is declining. The UN projected that about 4.5 million girls would be at risk in 2026 alone.
The practice is concentrated in about 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, but it also occurs in smaller communities and among diaspora populations elsewhere. It is usually carried out on young girls before puberty, and UNICEF reports that more girls are now cut at younger ages, many before their fifth birthday. About 4 in 10 girls and women who have undergone FGM live in fragile or conflict-affected settings, where services are hardest to deliver. Progress has been uneven: some countries have more than halved the share of adolescent girls affected, while in others the practice remains almost universal. A growing share is carried out by health workers, which can give it a false appearance of safety.
SDG target 5.3 calls for the elimination of all harmful practices, including female genital mutilation, by 2030. UNICEF tracks the official indicator using household surveys. Four elements shape the figures:
Non-medical procedures
FGM includes any procedure that removes or injures parts of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It counts as FGM whoever carries it out, including when a doctor, nurse or midwife performs it.
Measured among women aged 15 to 49
SDG indicator 5.3.2 is the share of girls and women aged 15 to 49 who have undergone FGM. Because most girls are cut in childhood, the figure for girls aged 15 to 19 is used to track recent change.
Only about 31 countries have national data
Nationally representative survey data, mostly from DHS and MICS, exist for about 31 countries. The practice is reported in 92 countries, so in many places, including countries of migration, there are no reliable prevalence figures.
Survey limits
The latest survey dates from a different year in each country. In several countries, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Nigeria, insecure areas could not be visited, and regional estimates include adjustments for countries without data.
What works
Programmes that support communities to discuss the practice openly, often ending in a public declaration that they will no longer cut their daughters, aim to change the shared expectation that sustains it. The UN programme counts 43,344 communities that made such declarations between 2008 and 2025, and an evaluation of a community education programme by Tostan found that FGM and child marriage fell substantially in all participating communities.
Limits
A declaration is not proof that cutting has stopped, and declarations are not systematically verified. The cumulative total is about 20% of the UN programme's 2030 target, and approaches need to be adapted to each setting.
What works
A clear legal ban sets a standard and gives authorities and communities a basis to act. In 2024 the Gambian National Assembly rejected a bill to repeal the country's ban, and in 2025 Guinea's new constitution explicitly prohibited FGM. Where the UN programme trained police and justice staff, arrests and court cases rose.
Limits
Only 51 of the 92 countries where the practice is reported have a national law that explicitly prohibits it, and penalties vary widely. The UN stresses that criminalisation alone is not enough without political will, awareness and local enforcement.
What works
WHO's 2025 guideline recommends professional codes of conduct that explicitly bar health workers from performing FGM, and training to help them decline requests and explain the risks. In 2025, 415 medical and paramedical training institutions in the UN programme included FGM in their courses.
Limits
About 52 million girls and women have been cut by health workers. The UN programme notes that the quality of training and whether it changes practice still need to be assessed.
What works
Where the practice is common, men are as likely as women to oppose it, and about 200 million boys and men in practising countries in Africa and the Middle East think it should stop. In Somaliland, the share of religious leaders who recognised its harms rose from 52% to 96%.
Limits
Nearly two-thirds of people in countries where FGM is prevalent support ending it, yet millions of girls are still cut each year, so changed attitudes do not on their own end the practice.
What works
WHO recommends health care for survivors at every stage of life, including mental health care, management of risks in pregnancy and childbirth and, where appropriate, surgical repair. In 2025 the UN programme helped about 561,000 girls and young women receive FGM-related health services or counselling.
Limits
Treating complications costs health systems an estimated $1.4 billion a year, and services reach only a small fraction of the more than 230 million girls and women affected.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Some governments are turning the WHO position into binding rules. In 2025 Indonesia's Ministry of Health issued regulations requiring providers to refuse all requests for FGM, and health professional bodies issued a joint statement calling on members to uphold codes of conduct. Their effect on medicalisation has not yet been measured.
Community-level systems identify girls aged 0 to 14 at risk and follow up with families. The UN programme counted 286,770 girls protected this way in 2025, but the figures swing widely between years and countries, and partners use different definitions, so they cannot yet be read as a measured fall in cutting.
Girls are sometimes taken across a border to be cut where the law is weaker. A Prohibition of FGM Bill for the East African Community was tabled for a first reading, and the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal planned joint action. Regional law is not yet in force.
Mass media and digital messaging on FGM and girls' rights reached about 316 million people in 2025 through the UN programme, more than three times the 2024 figure. Reach is not the same as changed behaviour, and the programme describes digital spaces as increasingly contested.
Implementation gap
Funds received by the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme fell by 45%, from $29.6 million in 2024 to $16.3 million in 2025. An estimated $2.8 billion is needed to end FGM in 31 countries by 2030, and the programme estimates current funding would need to rise fivefold.
Implementation gap
About 1 in 4 girls and women who have undergone FGM were cut by a health worker. WHO warns that this is no safer, may cause more severe injury and risks lending the practice legitimacy.
Implementation gap
In 2024 a bill to repeal the Gambia's 2015 ban reached the National Assembly before being rejected in July, and a constitutional challenge to the ban is before the country's Supreme Court. The UN programme reports organised countermovements in several countries.
Coordination gap
Girls are taken to neighbouring countries or countries of origin where the practice is not banned or laws are not enforced. Many states criminalise only cutting on their own territory or by their own citizens, and regional monitoring is weak.
Coordination gap
About 40% of girls and women who have undergone FGM live in fragile or conflict-affected countries. Crises divert resources and disrupt programmes, and political instability in Sudan and Yemen reduced community-level work in 2025.
Knowledge gap
National survey data exist for about 31 countries, while the practice is reported in 92. Programme partners use different indicators and tools, and there is no central data repository, which makes it hard to know what works.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
Which elements of community-led programmes lead to lasting declines in cutting rather than public declarations alone, and how can those changes be verified at reasonable cost?
Do codes of conduct, regulations and training actually reduce the number of girls cut by health workers, and how can the shift from traditional practitioners to health workers be reversed without driving the practice into hiding?
How can reliable estimates be produced for the many countries, including countries of migration and parts of Asia, where FGM is reported but no national survey data exist?
How do conflict, displacement and funding cuts affect the practice, and which approaches keep prevention and survivor services running in fragile settings?
Consider giving to organisations, including those led by women and survivors from affected communities, that work to end FGM and publish information on their results.
Ask your elected representatives to protect aid and national budgets for programmes that prevent FGM and support survivors, which have been cut sharply.
Health workers can learn their professional body's position and the WHO guidance on refusing requests and caring for survivors, and how to refer girls and women for support.
If you think a girl near you is at risk, contact local child protection services or a national child helpline. If she is in immediate danger, call the emergency services.
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UNICEF (press release, 8 March 2024), published 2024
UNICEF's latest global estimate (Female Genital Mutilation: A global concern, 2024): over 230 million girls and women alive, the 15% rise since the previous estimate, the regional split, younger ages at cutting, 4 in 10 in fragile settings and the 27-times-faster finding.
United Nations General Assembly, published 2024
The UN's latest biennial review: trends among girls aged 15 to 19 in 31 countries, country progress, laws in practising countries, the Gambia repeal attempt, cross-border cutting, attitudes of men and religious leaders, crisis settings and funding needs.
UN Statistics Division (data from UNICEF), published 2026
UNICEF modelled estimates for girls aged 15 to 19 in sub-Saharan Africa, 2004–2024, and national survey values with notes on coverage and areas that could not be surveyed.
World Health Organization (news release, 28 April 2025), published 2025
Launch of the WHO guideline on prevention and clinical management of FGM: definition, the 52 million girls and women cut by health workers, why medicalisation is not safer, and recommendations on codes of conduct, training and survivor care.
UNFPA and UNICEF, published 2026
Results of the main UN programme in 18 countries in 2025 (community declarations, services, health-sector training, arrests and court cases), its 45% funding fall, cost estimates, legal developments and data weaknesses.
UNFPA, UNICEF, OHCHR, UN Women, WHO and UNESCO (joint statement, 6 February 2026), published 2026
Joint statement for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM 2026: 4.5 million girls at risk in 2026, nearly two-thirds of people in prevalent countries supporting an end to the practice, and the $1.4 billion yearly cost of treating complications.
DO GOOD International (2026). Ending Female Genital Mutilation. Global Challenges. Updated October 15, 2026. https://www.dogood.world/challenges/female-genital-mutilation
For figures, please cite the original sources listed above.