Child marriage has been decreasing in prevalence in most parts of the world. UNICEF data from 2018 showed that about 21% of young women worldwide (aged 20 to 24) were married as children. This shows a 25% decrease from 10 years prior.[22] The countries with the highest known rates of child marriages were Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, the Central African Republic, Mozambique and Nepal, all of which had rates above 50% between 1998 and 2007.[23] According to studies conducted between 2003 and 2009, the marriage rate of girls under 15 years old was greater than 20% in Niger, Chad, Bangladesh, Mali, and Ethiopia.[24][25] Each year, an estimated 12 million girls globally are married under the age of 18.[26]
In 2021, 13.3 million babies, or about 10% of all global births, were born to mothers aged under 20 years old.[27]
