About 1.6 billion children, two in every three, regularly experience violent punishment by caregivers at home, yet only 15% of the world's children live where the law fully prohibits corporal punishment.
Updated October 15, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
Out of every 100 children in the world, how many are fully protected by law from all corporal punishment, including at home?
1.6 billion
Children who experience violent discipline at home
Two in three children worldwide regularly face physical punishment or psychological aggression from caregivers. Modelled from surveys in 102 countries covering 52% of the world's children.
Data year 2024. Source: UNICEF, 2025
370 million
Girls and women raped or sexually assaulted as children
One in eight girls and women alive today experienced contact sexual violence before age 18. An estimated 240 to 310 million boys and men, around one in eleven, also did.
Data year 2024. Source: UNICEF, 2024
70
States with a full legal ban on corporal punishment
These states prohibit all corporal punishment of children, including in the home, but together they are home to only about 15% of the world's children. A further 25 states have committed to a full ban.
Data year 2025. Source: End Corporal Punishment of Children, 2025
Unit: states
Cumulative number of states that had prohibited all corporal punishment of children, including in the home, by the end of each year, counted from the list of prohibition years published by End Corporal Punishment of Children. Sweden was the first, in 1979. The count does not include sub-national bans such as those in Scotland and Wales. Legal bans measure protection in law, not how often children are actually hit.
SDG target 16.2 aims to end all forms of violence against children by 2030. Yet two in three children still experience violent discipline at home, and in most regions more than half of children are affected. There is no global series showing whether this share is falling, and the data cover only about half of the world's children.
Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa together account for more than half of the 1.6 billion children who experience violent discipline. In most world regions, more than half of all children are affected.
Source: UNICEF, 2025Around 610 million children, one in four, live with a mother who experienced violence by her partner in the past year. In sub-Saharan Africa it is around one in three children, about 187 million.
Source: UNICEF, 2025Sexual violence against children is concentrated in adolescence, with a sharp rise between ages 14 and 17. The share of girls and women who experienced it as children ranges from 8% in Eastern and South-Eastern Asia to 22% in sub-Saharan Africa and 34% in Oceania.
Source: UNICEF, 2024In fragile settings, such as places affected by conflict or weak institutions, slightly more than one in four girls experienced rape or sexual assault in childhood, a markedly higher rate than the global one in eight.
Source: UNICEF, 2024Instead 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?
LowViolent discipline remains the everyday experience of about 1.6 billion children, and more than 370 million girls and women experienced sexual violence as children. Comparable global estimates over time are not available, so there is no evidence of a substantial decline.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateWHO rates parenting programmes as strongly recommended, based on 278 randomised trials that found moderate reductions in maltreatment and harsh parenting. Few trials follow families for more than six months to two years, and most outcomes are reported by parents.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowOnly 70 states fully prohibit corporal punishment, covering about 15% of the world's children. WHO notes that scaling parenting programmes is held back by limited funding, workforce and quality control.
The violent discipline estimate uses standard surveys from 102 countries covering 52% of the world's children, but coverage falls to 18% in Central and Southern Asia and figures for ages 15 to 17 are modelled. UNICEF reports persistent gaps on boys and non-contact sexual violence.
Legal protection is growing: the number of states with full bans rose from 11 in 2000 to 70 in 2025, and governments made formal pledges at the first global ministerial conference in Bogotá in 2024. Whether this is reducing violence in children's lives cannot yet be shown from global data.
Violence against children covers every form of violence against people under 18: physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect by caregivers, bullying, violence among young people, sexual violence and exposure to violence between adults at home. The most common form is violent discipline. UNICEF estimates that about 1.6 billion children, two in three worldwide, regularly experience physical punishment or psychological aggression such as shouting or name-calling from caregivers at home. More than 370 million girls and women alive today were raped or sexually assaulted before the age of 18, and an estimated 240 to 310 million boys and men had the same experience. WHO estimates that up to 1 billion children aged 2 to 17 experience physical, sexual or emotional violence or neglect in a single year.
Central and Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa together carry more than half of the global burden of violent discipline, and sexual violence against girls is most common in Oceania and sub-Saharan Africa and in fragile settings. Much of the risk sits inside the family: around 610 million children, one in four, live with a mother who was subjected to violence by her partner in the past year. Violence in childhood can cause injury and death, disrupt brain development and lead to mental health problems, risky behaviour, unintended pregnancy and noncommunicable disease later in life; homicide is among the four leading causes of death in adolescents. WHO stresses that this violence is preventable, and governments made 112 official pledges to act on it at the first global ministerial conference on the issue in Bogotá in November 2024.
SDG target 16.2 commits countries to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. Because much of this violence happens in private and is rarely reported, global figures rely on household surveys and modelling rather than official records. Four elements shape what is counted:
Violent discipline at home
A child is counted if a caregiver used any physical punishment or psychological aggression, such as shouting, screaming or calling the child offensive names, in the past month. The measure comes from standard household surveys (MICS and DHS) answered by caregivers.
Sexual violence in childhood
UNICEF's estimates count contact sexual violence, meaning rape or sexual assault before age 18, and separately include non-contact forms such as online or verbal abuse. Including non-contact forms raises the estimate for girls and women from 370 million to 650 million.
Other forms of violence
WHO also counts neglect and emotional abuse, bullying by other children, violence among young people aged 10 to 29, and intimate partner violence experienced by adolescents. Exposure to violence between parents is tracked separately as a risk to children.
Survey coverage and modelling
The violent discipline estimate draws on surveys from 102 countries between 2010 and 2024, covering 52% of the world's children. Surveys only ask about children aged 1 to 14, so figures for infants and for adolescents aged 15 to 17 are modelled.
What works
Programmes that teach caregivers non-violent ways to guide behaviour and strengthen the parent-child relationship are WHO's best-evidenced approach. In 278 randomised trials in 33 countries, programmes for parents of children aged 2 to 10 reduced maltreatment and harsh parenting and also reduced children's behaviour problems, with moderate certainty. WHO strongly recommends making them accessible to all parents of children aged 2 to 17 in low- and middle-income countries.
Limits
Effects are moderate in size, few trials follow families beyond six months, and some effects fade. Most results come from parents' own reports. Scaling up requires stable funding, trained staff and quality control that many countries lack.
What works
A complete ban sends a clear public signal that hitting children is not acceptable, including at home, and gives a basis for public education and support for parents. Since Sweden's ban in 1979, 70 states have adopted one, and 25 more have committed to do so.
Limits
The 70 states with full bans are home to only about 15% of the world's children. A ban on paper does not by itself change what happens at home: it needs to be widely known and backed by support for parents.
What works
WHO's INSPIRE package includes community and media work to shift beliefs that treat violence against children as normal or deserved, for example norms that condone the sexual abuse of girls. Social and gender norms that normalise violence are a key risk factor at the level of society.
Limits
Norms change slowly and are hard to measure, and the evidence base is much smaller than for parenting programmes. UNICEF also calls for tackling norms that discourage children from seeking help, which requires services they can actually turn to.
What works
INSPIRE combines school enrolment, life and social skills training and safe environments such as identifying local hot spots for violence. Schools reach large numbers of children and can teach how to recognise and report abuse and how to prevent bullying.
Limits
Bullying and other violence also happen in schools, so schools must first be safe themselves. Children who are out of school are not reached.
What works
Children who experience violence need access to emergency care, psychological support, child protection services and justice systems that are designed for children. INSPIRE treats these services as one of its seven strategies alongside prevention.
Limits
Much violence is never disclosed, and norms often discourage children from seeking help, so services reach only part of the children affected. Effective response requires health, police, justice and social welfare to work together, which is often lacking.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Delivering parenting programmes online, by phone or in a mix of digital and in-person sessions could lower costs and reach more families. WHO notes that examples from low- and middle-income countries are still few, so effectiveness at scale is not yet established.
Most parenting programmes target young children. WHO strongly recommends programmes for parents of adolescents aged 10 to 17 in low- and middle-income countries, but the 30 trials behind this recommendation give mostly low or very low certainty evidence.
Families in conflict and displacement face high stress and disrupted services. WHO recommends adapted parenting support for these settings based on 18 trials, but the certainty of effects on maltreatment is very low.
At the Bogotá conference, governments made 112 official pledges, and WHO is supporting their implementation through a community of practice, with a second global ministerial conference planned for late 2026. Whether the pledges lead to measurable change will depend on funding and monitoring.
Implementation gap
Only about 15% of the world's children live in countries that fully prohibit corporal punishment, and 25 states that have committed to a ban have not yet completed law reform.
Implementation gap
Where social and gender norms treat hitting or shouting at children as a normal part of raising them, violence is rarely questioned or reported, and demand for support is low.
Implementation gap
WHO identifies funding, workforce capacity and keeping quality high as the main challenges in moving parenting programmes from trials to national systems.
Knowledge gap
Survey data on violent discipline cover 52% of the world's children overall but only 18% in Central and Southern Asia, and no surveys ask about adolescents aged 15 to 17. Data on boys and on non-contact sexual violence are especially limited.
Knowledge gap
Few parenting trials measure outcomes beyond six months, and the longest follow-up is two years, so it is unclear how long reductions in harsh parenting and maltreatment last.
Coordination gap
Prevention depends on health, education, justice, social welfare and finance working together. The 112 pledges from Bogotá span these sectors, and turning them into funded national plans requires sustained coordination.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
How much do full bans on corporal punishment change caregivers' behaviour over time, and which accompanying measures, such as public education or parenting support, make the difference?
Do reductions in harsh parenting achieved in early childhood persist as children grow older, and do they lower later violence, mental health problems or violence in the next generation?
Children exposed to violence between their parents are often also disciplined violently. Can programmes that address partner violence and child maltreatment together prevent both more effectively than separate ones?
How can violence against adolescents aged 15 to 17, sexual violence against boys and online abuse be measured reliably and ethically, so that trends can be tracked in every region?
If you care for children, look for free, evidence-based parenting resources from UNICEF, WHO or your local health services, and share them with other parents and caregivers.
Consider giving to or volunteering with organisations that offer parenting support, child helplines or services for children who have experienced violence, and that report on what their programmes achieve.
Ask your elected representatives whether your country fully prohibits corporal punishment, what it pledged at the 2024 Bogotá conference, and how those commitments are funded.
If you are worried about a child, contact your local child protection services or a national child helpline. If a child is in immediate danger, call the emergency services.
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UNICEF, published 2025
Latest global estimates of violent discipline (1.6 billion children, two in three) and of children living with a mother who experienced intimate partner violence (about 610 million), with regional breakdowns and data coverage (102 countries, 2010 to 2024, 52% of children).
UNICEF (press release, 9 October 2024), published 2024
First global and regional estimates of childhood sexual violence against girls and boys, including non-contact forms, with notes on data gaps.
World Health Organization, published 2026
Definitions of the forms of violence against children, risk factors, consequences, the up to 1 billion estimate, adolescent homicide and the seven INSPIRE prevention strategies (updated 7 May 2026).
End Corporal Punishment of Children (Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children), published 2025
Tracks states that have fully prohibited corporal punishment of children, including in the home (70 states, with year of prohibition), states committed to reform and the share of children fully protected in law.
World Health Organization, published 2024
Overview of the Bogotá conference (7 to 8 November 2024): participation, 120 pledges including 112 from Member States, new funding commitments and plans for follow-up and a second conference.
World Health Organization, published 2023
Recommendations and systematic reviews of randomised trials (278 globally, 131 in low- and middle-income countries) on parenting programmes, with effect sizes, certainty ratings and scale-up challenges.