| 1 | 60% or over |
| 2 | 40% to 59% |
| 3 | 20% to 39% |
| 4 | 10% - 19% |
| 5 | less than 10% |
| 6 | No Data |
| 1 | over 30% |
| 2 | 20% to 29% |
| 3 | 10% to 19% |
| 4 | 5% to 9% |
| 5 | less than 5% |
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Married Too Soon
What does it mean ?
Child marriage (also known as early marriage) is defined as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18. It is measured as the percentage of women who are in a marriage / union before the age of 18 years. It is often presented specifically for women currently aged 20-24 years only in order to give an indication of recent prevalence.
Why does it matter ?
As well as being a violation of a girl or young woman's human rights, early or child marriage is associated with curtailment of education, psychosocial disadvantage, poor reproductive health, increased risk of intimate partner violence and poor child health outcomes for the subsequent generation. The elimination of early and child marriage is a target for Sustainable Development Goal 5: toachieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 5.3: "by 2030 to eliminate all harmful practices, such as early, forced and child marriage, and female genital mutilation."
How is it collected ?
In high and some middle income countries estimates are based on vital registration data. However, most estimates are based on self-reported, retrospective data from large scale, nationally representative surveys such as Demographic and Health (DHS) or Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). It must be noted that these surveys adopt a broad definition of marriage / union which includes legal and "traditional" marriages, as well as consensual unions with cohabitation.
UNICEF datasets most recent available data http://data.unicef.org/child-protection/child-marriage.html
Accessed 15th August 2016
Unmet Need for Family Planning
What does it mean ?
This indicator is the percentage of women aged 15-49 (of reproductive age) in marital or consensual unions who do not want any more children or want to delay the birth of their next child for at least two years, but are not using contraception.
Why does it matter ?
Women who are able to practice family planning do better in terms of their socio-economic status, education, empowerment and health. The percentage of women who have an unmet need for family planning can tell us about the reach and quality of a country's healthcare system.
How is it collected ?
A national survey was undertaken in each country from a representative sample of households where women were asked if they would like more children, or to wait to become pregnant again, or have they finished childbearing. Those that could conceive were asked if they used contraception. A woman had an unmet need for contraception if she did not want any more children or wanted to delay her next birth for at least two years, but was not using contraception.
Millenium Development Goals Indicators, United Nations Statistics Division, http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Data.aspx UN STATS Millenium Development Indicator Database 2014 (most recent data 1996 – 2014)
