This UNICEF report presents data on the current state of children in the world. Data continue to support advocacy and action on behalf of the world’s 2.2 billion children, providing governments with facts on which to base decisions and actions to improve children’s lives. New ways of collecting and using data will help target investments and interventions to reach the most vulnerable children.
The data show that tremendous progress has been made during the past few decades:
- About 90 million children who would have died if mortality rates had stuck at their 1990 level have, instead, lived past the age of 5.
- Deaths from measles among children under 5 years of age fell from 482,000 in 2000 to 86,000 in 2012, thanks in large part to immunization coverage, which increased from 16 per cent in 1980 to 84 per cent in 2012.
- Improvements in nutrition have led to a 37 per cent drop in stunting since 1990.
- Primary school enrolment has increased, even in the least developed countries: Whereas in 1990 only 53 per cent of children in those countries gained school admission, by 2011 the rate had improved to 81 per cent.
- Nearly 1.9 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990.
But the tables also bear witness to ongoing violations of children’s rights:
- Some 6.6 million children under 5 years of age died in 2012, mostly from preventable causes, their fundamental right to survive and develop unrealised.
- Fifteen per cent of the world’s children engage in child labour that compromises their right to protection from economic exploitation and infringes on their right to learn and play.
- Eleven per cent of girls are married before they turn 15, jeopardizing their rights to health, education and protection.
- The right to freedom from cruel and degrading punishment is violated whenever children are subjected to violent discipline at home or in school.
The tables also reveal gaps and inequities, showing that gains and deprivations are unevenly distributed.
- Children’s chances differ depending on whether their country is a rich or a poor one; whether they are born girls or boys, into families rich or poor; or whether they live in the countryside or the city – and there, too, whether they live in well-to-do areas or impoverished neighbourhoods.
- Of the roughly 18,000 children under 5 years old who die every day, a disproportionate number are from parts of cities or the countryside that are cut off from services because of poverty or geography. Many could be saved by proven means and at little cost.
- Although diarrhoea can be treated effectively and inexpensively with oral rehydration salts, children from the richest homes who become ill with diarrhoea are up to four times more likely to be treated than children from the poorest homes.
- And while improved drinking water has become available to 2.1 billion more people worldwide since 1990, this progress has bypassed many residents of rural areas. They account for less than half of the world’s population but make up 83 per cent of those still deprived of a reliable source of safe drinking water.
Data that reveal disparities masked by aggregate figures can help to direct interventions that can reach the unreached and right the wrong of exclusion. The more precisely aid and opportunity can be focused, the greater the potential impact.