This Statistical Compendium to the report "The State of the World's Children 2024: The Future of Childhood in a Changing World," offers vital statistics on child survival, development, and protection worldwide, supporting UNICEF's commitment to tracking progress toward global goals for children's and women's rights. It includes the…

Countries in East Asia and the Pacific were among the first globally to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the first wave, however, the pandemic was kept mostly under control. During subsequent waves in 2021, virus variants, including the highly contagious Delta variant, elevated several countries in the region to hotspots for COVID-19,…

This report summarizes the challenges, opportunities and proposed actions during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic as they relate to social protection, emergencies, the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programme, immunization, education, child protection, nutrition, climate change, migrants, adolescents, mental health, gender…

Almost two years into the pandemic, its widespread impact continues to deepen, increasing poverty and entrenching inequality. While some countries are recovering and rebuilding in a 'new normal', for too many, COVID-19 remains a catastrophe. The unequal rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is putting entire communities at risk. And as new variants…

"The State of the World's Children 2017" examines the ways in which digital technology has already changed children's lives and life chances -- and explores what the future may hold. If leveraged in the right way and made universally accessible, digital technology can be a game changer for children being left behind -- whether because of…

This summary of the "UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018-2021" highlights the organization's key goals and activities, setting out the concrete results that UNICEF aims to achieve for children with its partners over a four-year period. The summary also outlines the organizational change strategies and enablers envisioned by the Strategic Plan to…

Seventy years after UNICEF was established, the organization's mission to promote the full attainment of the rights of all children is as urgent as ever. The UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018-2021 is anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and charts a course towards attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the realization of a…

This edition of "The State of the World's Children" report examines children, food and nutrition. It seeks to deepen understanding around the causes and consequences of children's malnutrition in all its forms and to highlight how governments, business, families and other stakeholders can best respond. Chapter 1 examines the changing…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has made the assessment that COVID-19 (coronavirus) can be characterised as a pandemic and the virus has now spread to many countries and territories. While a lot is still unknown about the virus that causes COVID-19, we do know that it is transmitted through direct contact with respiratory droplets of an…

This is the first in a planned series of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports tracking progress on the child-related indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report highlights, through a data lens, the enormous task ahead for countries in meeting the 2030 Agenda for children. Through the development of projections to…

This is the executive summary of the first in a planned series of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports tracking progress on the child-related indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report highlights, through a data lens, the enormous task ahead for countries in meeting the 2030 Agenda for children. Through the…

The science is clear: A child's brain is built, not born. The process begins before birth and involves a complex interplay of neural connections that are shaped by experience and environment. In the early years, these neural connections occur at lightning speed--a speed never again repeated. They establish a foundation of development that will…

Part 1 of the Report Card presents a league table of child well-being in 29 of the world's advanced economies. Part 2 looks at what children say about their own well-being (including a league table of children's life satisfaction). Part 3 examines changes in child well-being in advanced economies over the first decade of the 2000s, looking at each…

This report presents key statistics relating to: (1) child malnutrition in Africa; (2) HIV/AIDS and Malaria in Africa; (3) child marriage, birth registration and Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C); (4) education in Africa; (5) child mortality in Africa; (6) Drinking water and sanitation in Africa; and (7) maternal health in Africa.…

This report builds and expands upon the analyses of Report Card No. 6 which considered relative income poverty affecting children and policies to mitigate it. Report Card 7 provides a pioneering, comprehensive picture of child well being through the consideration of six dimensions: material well-being, health and safety, education, family and peer…