2017 Annual Report for the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage

Over the past decade, child marriage has continued to decline. Globally, the proportion of young women who were married as children decreased from 1 in 4 to about 1 in 5. It is now estimated that a total of 650 million girls and women alive today were married as children.

However, the current rate of decline in child marriage is not sufficient to meet the SDG target of ending child marriage by 2030. What's more, the reduction in child marriage has been uneven. While South Asia has led the way on reducing child marriage, the global burden is shifting to sub-Saharan Africa, where rates of progress need to be accelerated dramatically to reduce the prevalence and offset population growth.