COVID-19 and children data hub

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and will be borne by children for years to come. For millions, learning has come to a halt and essential health services like the delivery of life-saving vaccines are out of reach. Others have been plunged into a lifelong cycle of poverty. Using the latest available data, this hub highlights the impacts of the pandemic on children’s poverty, education, health, nutrition and more.

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COVID-19

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Fed to Fail: The crisis of children's diets in early life

The 2021 Child Nutrition Report reveals that the world is failing to feed its children. Currently, 27 per cent of children aged 6–8 months are not fed solid food. Among children under the age of two, 48 per cent are not fed the minimum recommended number of meals, and 71 per cent do not have minimally diverse diets. Analysis reveals that children living in rural areas, poorer households and disadvantaged regions within countries have the least diverse diets. The poor quality of young children’s diets has persisted and shown little to no improvement in the last decade.

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Education disrupted: The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures

Schoolchildren around the world have lost an estimated 1.8 trillion hours – and counting – of in-person learning since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. Around 131 million schoolchildren in 11 countries have missed three quarters of their in-class learning from March 2020 to September 2021. Among them, 59 per cent – or nearly 77 million – have missed almost all in-person instruction time. As a result, young learners have been cut off from their education and the other vital benefits schools provide.

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Children and the Sustainable Development Goals

We believe that consistent, credible data about children’s situations are critical to the improvement of their lives – and indispensable to realizing the rights of every child.

1 in 4

children under the age of five officially do not exist

160 million

children worldwide were in child labour in 2020

1.6 billion

children worldwide were affected by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic

3 billion

people worldwide do not have a handwashing facility with water and soap at home

6-7 million

additional children may have suffered from wasting or acute malnutrition due to COVID-19

Latest statistics

Uncertain Pathways: How gender shapes the experiences of children on the move

Available data demonstrate that gender plays a pivotal role from the time the decision to leave home is made, and continues to shape experiences and vulnerabilities throughout the child’s journey and integration process at the destination. COVID-19 has added another layer of complexity to the lives of children on the move, exacerbating pre-existing insecurities in some dimensions and introducing new ones. Girls in particular are feeling many of these effects acutely, such as gender-based violence.

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The climate crisis is a child rights crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index

The Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) provides the first comprehensive view of children’s exposure and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. It ranks countries based on children’s exposure to climate and environmental shocks, such as cyclones and heatwaves, as well as their vulnerability to those shocks, based on their access to essential services. This report presents a conceptual framework, a tool and an initial assessment at a global level  – in order to help prioritize action for those most at risk.

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The state of food security and nutrition in the world

Nearly one-tenth of the world population – up to 811 million people went hungry in 2020. After remaining virtually unchanged for five years, world hunger increased last year. Further, it is projected that around 660 million people may still face hunger in 2030, 30 million more people than in a scenario in which the pandemic had not occurred, due to lasting effects of COVID-19 on global food security. The setback makes the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal for zero hunger and ending all forms of malnutrition more challenging.

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Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward

The latest global estimates indicate that the number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years. 63 million girls and 97 million boys were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. This report warns that global progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years. According to the estimates, globally 9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic.

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