UNICEF · Children with Functional Difficulties
Children with functional difficulties by country
What share of children have difficulty in at least one area of functioning?
Of the 62 countries compared in the 2024 edition, Afghanistan had the highest reading, 35.2%, and North Korea had the lowest reading, 0.9%. In the middle country the figure was 13.0%.
Share
Children with functional difficulties · the 2024 edition
Context statistic
Highest of 62Afghanistan
35.2%01the 2024 edition · values only
The highest and the lowest
The three countries with the highest values of 62 compared, the three with the lowest, and the highest on each continent. This statistic has no better end, so no country is shown as leading.
- 1
- 2
- 3
Lowest in the 2024 edition
North Korea0.9%
Thailand1.1%
Vietnam1.9%
This statistic has no better end: the two ends describe size, not success.
Highest on each continent
02Every measured country
Children with functional difficulties on a map
Each country is shaded by its value, in five groups holding the same number of countries. Hover a country for its value, or select it to open its profile. Below the map, each continent’s middle country.
Darker is a higher value. This statistic has no better end, so the shades describe size, not success.
- 0.9–7.4%
- 7.5–11.1%
- 11.3–14.2%
- 14.9–20.7%
- 20.8–35.2%
- No reading in the 2024 edition
- Africa
19.4%
the middle country, of 20 measured · 55 members
Central African Republic31.4%
Lesotho8.0%Highest and lowest reading in Africa.
- Americas
13.2%
the middle country, of 12 measured · 48 members
Costa Rica20.8%
Jamaica6.9%Highest and lowest reading in Americas.
- Oceania
10.6%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 21 members
Samoa22.6%
Nauru2.2%Highest and lowest reading in Oceania.
- Asia
8.9%
the middle country, of 18 measured · 52 members
Afghanistan35.2%North Korea0.9%Highest and lowest reading in Asia.
- Europe
7.5%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 49 members
North Macedonia11.1%2 share 4.9%
Highest and lowest reading in Europe.
- Every region
18 sub-regions, highest middle country first
- Middle Africa
27.3%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 9 members
Central African Republic31.4%
DR Congo19.5%Highest and lowest reading in Middle Africa.
- Western Africa
16.2%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 16 members
Sierra Leone23.1%
Gambia10.1%Highest and lowest reading in Western Africa.
- Western Asia
14.1%
the middle country, of 7 measured · 19 members
Iraq22.1%
Qatar3.1%Highest and lowest reading in Western Asia.
- Caribbean
11.1%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 24 members
Cuba11.5%Jamaica6.9%Highest and lowest reading in Caribbean.
- Central America
4 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico.
Costa Rica20.8%
El Salvador12.8%Highest and lowest reading in Central America.
- Central Asia
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan18.4%
Turkmenistan2.0%Highest and lowest reading in Central Asia.
- Eastern Africa
4 of 19 measured — too few for a middle: Comoros, Madagascar, Malawi, Zimbabwe.
Comoros25.3%
Zimbabwe10.1%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Eastern Asia
1 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: North Korea.
North Korea0.9%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Eastern Europe
1 of 10 measured — too few for a middle: Belarus.
Belarus4.9%Highest and lowest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Melanesia
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Vanuatu.
Vanuatu10.6%
Fiji9.4%Highest and lowest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati, Nauru.
Kiribati22.5%Nauru2.2%Highest and lowest reading in Micronesia.
- Northern Africa
2 of 6 measured — too few for a middle: Algeria, Tunisia.
Algeria20.5%
Tunisia19.3%Highest and lowest reading in Northern Africa.
- Polynesia
3 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu.
Samoa22.6%
Tonga9.8%Highest and lowest reading in Polynesia.
- South America
3 of 12 measured — too few for a middle: Argentina, Guyana, Suriname.
Guyana17.5%
Suriname13.6%Highest and lowest reading in South America.
- South-eastern Asia
4 of 11 measured — too few for a middle: Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam.
Malaysia5.6%Thailand1.1%Highest and lowest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Africa
2 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Eswatini, Lesotho.
Eswatini12.7%Lesotho8.0%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Africa.
- Southern Asia
3 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal.
Afghanistan35.2%
Bangladesh8.3%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Asia.
- Southern Europe
4 of 17 measured — too few for a middle: Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia.
North Macedonia11.1%
Serbia4.9%Highest and lowest reading in Southern Europe.
03The whole field at once
The spread
62 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 13.0%; a quarter are above 19.5%, and a quarter below 8.4%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 62 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first. No rank or position is shown: too many countries share the same value for an order to mean anything. A higher figure here is not worse news. Measured prevalence rises with how carefully a survey asks, so this table substantially ranks the quality of the instrument — which is why no position is shown. It is included because disability is otherwise entirely absent from this site.
Showing 25 of 62 countries
Values for the 2024 edition.
05In this edition
Children with functional difficulties in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
35.2%
Children aged 5-17 with a functional difficulty (%)
Lowest reading
0.9%
Children aged 5-17 with a functional difficulty (%)
06The measure
About children with functional difficulties
This is the share of children aged 5 to 17 who have difficulty in at least one area of functioning — from seeing and walking to remembering, concentrating and making friends. It uses the Washington Group module, the international standard for measuring disability by function rather than by diagnosis.
What the number is: Children aged 5-17 with a functional difficulty (%).
07Where it fits
Connections
Its part in the Country Index, the statistics whose values line up most closely with it across countries, and others on the same subject.
In the Country Index
Context, with no vote
This statistic is published in full under Health & Wellbeing and Development & Human Capital, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Health & WellbeingDevelopment & Human CapitalWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where children with functional difficulties is higher, these tend to be higher too.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Moves against
Where children with functional difficulties is higher, these tend to be lower.
No statistic lines up this closely.
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 0 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The data, edition by edition
The countries at either end
09Questions
Children with functional difficulties: questions and answers
Which country has the highest children with functional difficulties?
Afghanistan, at 35.2%, among the 62 countries compared in the 2024 edition.
Which country has the lowest children with functional difficulties?
North Korea, at 0.9%, among the 62 countries compared in the 2024 edition.
How many countries does the Children with Functional Difficulties cover?
62 in the 2024 edition.
What is the world average children with functional difficulties?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 62 compared in the 2024 edition, the figure was 13.0%.
Is this UNICEF’s own ranking?
No ranking is shown. UNICEF publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything, so none is derived.
How often is the Children with Functional Difficulties published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2024.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UNICEF, under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Read from UNICEF's own data warehouse, using the Washington Group / UNICEF Child Functioning Module. Only 62 countries have run it. Every edition is on this site’s Datasets pages as a full table, and downloads as a CSV file with every value unrounded.
10Method
Sources, method and citation
Source
Children with Functional Difficulties — UNICEF
Read from UNICEF's own data warehouse, using the Washington Group / UNICEF Child Functioning Module. Only 62 countries have run it.
Newest edition
Report year 2024Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: UNICEF. UNICEF Data Warehouse. New York: UNICEF.
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO, checked 2026-09-10.
How this page reads the numbers
- No rank or position is shown: UNICEF publishes values only, and too many countries share the same value for an ordering to mean anything.
- This statistic has no better end, so the page describes higher and lower values and never calls a country a leader.
- A country is named at an end only when it holds that value alone. Where several share it, the page says how many and names none first.
- The file gives each country’s most recent reading, so the rows are from different years. Readings from before 2014 are listed but left out of every comparison on this page.
- Values are stored exactly as published and trimmed only for display. “The middle country” is the median of the countries measured, not a world average.
The file itself, column by column — where it came from, what each column holds, and every edition as a CSV — is on its dataset page.
Cite this page
Nations Inquiry (2026). Children with functional difficulties by country: Children with Functional Difficulties, data from UNICEF. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/child-disability