Population Reference Bureau

Millions of girls under 18 married off in last 10 years

Fifty-eight million young women in developing countries – one in three – have been married before the age of 18 in the last decade.

Many of these marriages were against the will of the girls and in violation of international laws and conventions on women’s rights.

More disturbing is one in nine girls aged between 10 and 14 years or 15 million have been forced into marriages thus condemning them to a life of poverty, social isolation and powerlessness and infringement on their human rights, health and well-being.

This was contained in the April, 2011 Policy Brief titled ‘Who speaks for me? Ending child marriage published by Population Reference Bureau of Washington D.C.

It said though child marriage was not limited to any one country or continent, 10 countries have particularly high prevalence rates with one-half to three-fourths of girls in those countries marrying before their 18th birthday.

It named those countries as Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh and Guinea.

The others are Central Africa Republic, Mozambique, Nepal, Malawi and Ethiopia.

The Policy Brief said low level of education, poverty and religion were directly correlated with higher rates of child marriage.

It said child marriage undermined nearly every Millennium Development Goal and it was also an obstacle to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and improving maternal and child health.

It recommended the passing of legislations, developing policies and programmes based on risk factors, including multiple sectors in interventions, using behaviour change techniques to change community norms and addressing the needs of very young adolescent girls to curtail child marriage.

2009 World Population Data Sheet - Population Reference Bureau

And its summary report, to be released on Aug. 12, offer detailed information about country, regional, and global population patterns.

"Even with declining fertility rates in many countries, world population is still growing at a rapid rate,” said Bill Butz, PRB's president. "The increase from 6 billion to 7 billion is likely to take 12 years, as did the increase from 5 billion to 6 billion. Both events are unprecedented in world history."

The projection for population growth in developing countries assumes that fertility in those countries will fall to the same low levels as in today's developed countries, around two children per woman. That is quite an assumption. Currently, the highest fertility rate is in Niger, 7.4 children per woman. The lowest rate is in Taiwan, 1.0 children per woman.

"The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth—nearly 90 percent—are in developing countries," said Carl Haub, PRB senior demographer and co-author of the data sheet. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia. "During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care." One of the major social questions of the next few decades is whether their expectations will be met.

The 2009 World Population Data Sheet provides up-to-date demographic, health, and environment data for all the countries and major regions of the world. It shows just how stark the contrasts are between rich and poor countries, as illustrated by the table with data from the United States, Canada, and Uganda.