Ending Child Marriage: UNICEF's Commitment and How to Help

What is child marriage?

Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union between a child under age 18 and an adult or another child. Girls are disproportionately affected, with 1 in 5 young women aged 20 to 24 years old married before their 18th birthday, compared to 1 in 30 young men. 

That 1 in 5 rate actually indicates progress toward eliminating the practice. In 2000, 1 in 4 girls were married as children. 

UNICEF estimates that between 1997 and 2022, some 68 million child marriages were averted. 

And yet: a global backlash against gender equality and human rights is contributing to legal and political rollbacks. Humanitarian crises — such as the protracted conflict in Yemen and climate-related shocks in Africa and South Asia — are increasing girls' vulnerability, with families resorting to child marriage as a way to cope. Climate change acts as a threat multiplier, exacerbating poverty and instability. 

An estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood. 

Here is a look at why UNICEF is working so hard to end the practice, progress so far and critical next steps. 

Learn more about UNICEF's child protection programs

A human rights violation that threatens the lives, well-being and futures of millions of girls around the world

Marriage before age 18 is internationally recognized as a fundamental violation of human rights. Girls who are married as children are more likely to be out of school, suffer domestic violence, contract HIV/AIDS and die due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Child marriage also hurts economies and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty.

Girls who are at greatest risk of marrying early are also often the hardest to reach with protective services and support. They are often poor, live in rural areas or are otherwise marginalized. Often isolated from family, friends and their communities, they are often deprived of opportunities to pursue a livelihood and to thrive. Child marriage also hurts economies and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty.

Achieving gender equality depends on ending child marriage

In avoiding child marriage, girls are better able to reach their full potential. Ending the practice is considered crucial to achieving gender equality and improving maternal, child and newborn health, and to driving economic development. For all of these reasons and more, the United Nations has called for an end to child marriage by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Tackling the issue of child marriage requires recognizing the factors — such as poverty and poor access to education and health care — that enable and perpetuate it. The reasons for the practice vary among countries and cultures.

Some families arrange for their young daughters to be married as a way to cope with a desperate situation. Some believe it will help protect their daughters and secure their future. Also upholding the practice are norms and stereotypes around gender roles and marriage age and the socioeconomic risk of pregnancy outside of marriage.

How UNICEF and partners are working to stop child marriage 

UNFPA and UNICEF's joint Global Program to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, launched in 2016, focuses efforts in 12 countries where the practice is most prevalent: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. (Nearly half, or 45 percent, of child brides live in South Asia; 20 percent in sub-Saharan Africa; 15 percent in East Asia and the Pacific and 9 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.)

Over two dozen additional countries receive technical support through the initiative to help strengthen services and protections for vulnerable girls.

“Choosing when and whom to marry is one of life’s most important decisions," Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, said at the time the initiative launched. "Child marriage denies millions of girls this choice each year."

Enlisting families, communities, governments and young people to prevent child marriage — and to empower those already married as girls

The initiative's main approach is to enlist families, communities, governments and young people to help prevent girls from marrying too young — by empowering young girls who are at risk — and to support and empower those who already married as girls.

Program work is rooted in the following four proven strategies:

• increasing girls’ access to education
• educating parents and communities on the dangers of child marriage
• increasing economic support to families
• strengthening and enforcing laws that establish 18 as the minimum age of marriage

In 2024, through these program efforts:

• 7.4 million adolescent girls (aged 10 to 19 were empowered through life skills and comprehensive sexuality education —considered critical support for marginalized girls
• 8.4 million million girls were supported to enroll in, return to or remain in school
• 29.5 million individuals engaged in group education or dialogues on child marriage, girls’ rights and gender equality — considered key to creating the necessary enabling environment for change 
• 280 million people were reached via mass media messaging
• 4.7 million boys and men engaged in promoting positive gender norms — and challenging harmful ones
• 2.5 million children accessed prevention and protection services
• 3.5 million girls benefited from social protection, poverty reduction, and economic empowerment programs
• 81 policies or legal instruments addressing child marriage were drafted, proposed or adopted
• 133 women-led and 1,361 youth-led organizations engaged in program delivery and advocacy

Progress toward ending child marriage by region

While gains have been made in some parts of the world, in others, progress has been limited or has stalled.

South Asia has the highest number of child brides. One-third of the world’s child brides are in India. Yet the region has also seen the most significant reduction in the prevalence of child marriage in the last decade, with child marriage rates falling from 39 percent to 26 percent. 

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence rate: 31 percent in 2024, down from 38 percent a decade earlier. Due to slow progress and rapid population growth, its share of the world’s child brides is projected to grow. 

In the Middle East and North Africa, 1 in 6 young women marry before age 18. But most countries in the region have seen progress over the past 25 years, and the progress has been equitable among both high- and low-income populations. 

In Latin America and the Caribbean, home to 9 percent of the world’s child brides, is projected to have the second-highest prevalence globally by 2030. Countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and East Asia have relatively low but persistent levels, with girls from disadvantaged populations still at risk.

“The world is engulfed by crises on top of crises that are crushing the hopes and dreams of vulnerable children, especially girls who should be students, not brides,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

“Health and economic crises, escalating armed conflicts and the ravaging effects of climate change are forcing families to seek a false sense of refuge in child marriage. We need to do everything in our power to ensure that their rights to an education and empowered lives are secured.”

We need to do everything in our power to ensure that [girls'] rights to an education and empowered lives are secured. — UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell

Families who receive support more likely to keep girls in school, less likely to turn to child marriage as a way to cope

Despite global progress, current rates of decline in child marriage are too low to meet Sustainable Development Goal 5.3, which aims to eliminate child marriage by 2030. At the current rate, over nine million girls will still marry that year.

Yet even in regions where progress has lagged, UNICEF points to promising examples of improvement. UNICEF-supported social protection programs providing cash assistance are reaching families in need and showing a positive impact. Families who receive support are more likely to keep girls in school and less likely to turn to negative coping mechanisms like child marriage and child labor.

"We’ve proven that progress to end child marriage is possible," Russell says. "It requires unwavering support for vulnerable girls and families.”

Learn more: Read "Towards 2030: Driving Urgent Action to End Child Marriage" — the Global Program's 2024 annual results report

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Frequently Asked Questions about child marriage

Where is child marriage still happening?

Child marriage is a global issue that affects girls in many countries and cultures. While it is more common in some regions, it also occurs in high-income countries, including the United States. South Asia has the highest number of child brides; one-third of the world’s child brides are in India. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence rate: 31 percent of girls are married before age 18.