1 60% or over
2 40% to 59%
3 20% to 39%
4 10% - 19%
5 less than 10%
6 No Data
1 0 to 5
2 5 to 10
3 10 to 20
4 20 to 30
5 30 to 40
6 40+
7 No Data

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

Infant Mortality Rate

What does it mean ?

The infant mortality rate is the probability that a child will die between the time of birth and exactly 1 year of age; it is expressed per every 1000 live births in that same year. A live birth refers to any baby that is born that shows signs of life outside of the womb.

Why does it matter ?

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) was chosen as one of the indicators to be tracked as part of the targets of Millennium Development Goal 4, to reduce child mortality. It is a general indicator of child health. Rather than being an indicator that looks specifically at health care delivery it is an indicator of the socio-economic, environmental and nutritional status of children.

How is it collected ?

A preferable source of data for calculating Infant Mortality Rates is from nationally registered births and deaths. Where registration systems are incomplete, other methods are used such as household surveys where women are asked about every baby they have given birth to and how long the child survived or population censuses. To calculate the mortality estimate, the data from these sources are analysed statistically using a particular model designed by the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

IMR 2018 - World Bank. 2020. Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN [Accessed 9 March 2020]