UNICEF · Child Marriage
Child marriage by country
What share of young women were married before they turned 18?
Of the 125 countries compared in the 2025 edition, 3 countries shared the lowest reading, 0.0%, and Central African Republic had the highest reading, 61.0%. In the middle country the figure was 16.1%. 20 readings from before 2015 are listed but not compared.
Share
Child marriage · the 2025 edition
Context statistic
3 countries share the lowest value, 0.0% — no single country is named first.
01the 2025 edition · position · derived
Who leads
The three countries at the lowest end of 125 compared, the three at the other end, and the first on each continent.
Lowest in the 2025 edition · shared
3 countries share the lowest reading, 0.0%
No single country is named first: picking one from a shared value would be a choice the data does not make.
Highest in the 2025 edition
Central African Republic61.0%
Chad60.6%
Burkina Faso51.3%
Where a country sits says how it compares with the others measured, and nothing about why.
02Every measured country
Child marriage 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 lower value — the better end.
- 29.6–61.0%
- 20.7–29.5%
- 13.3–19.7%
- 4.7–12.5%
- 0.0–4.2%
- Hatched: a reading from before 2015, listed but not compared (20)
- No reading in the 2025 edition
- Europe
4.4%
the middle country, of 14 measured · 49 members
2 share 0.0%
Albania11.8%Lowest and highest reading in Europe.
- Asia
9.8%
the middle country, of 37 measured · 52 members
2 share 0.1%
Bangladesh47.2%Lowest and highest reading in Asia.
- Oceania
18.2%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 21 members
Tuvalu1.8%
Papua New Guinea27.3%Lowest and highest reading in Oceania.
- Americas
22.2%
the middle country, of 21 measured · 48 members
Chile0.0%
Suriname36.0%Lowest and highest reading in Americas.
- Africa
25.8%
the middle country, of 44 measured · 55 members
Eswatini1.9%Central African Republic61.0%Lowest and highest reading in Africa.
- Every region
20 sub-regions, lowest middle country first
- Northern Europe
0.1%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 13 members
2 share 0.0%
Denmark0.7%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Europe.
- Northern Africa
4.1%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 6 members
Tunisia2.4%
Egypt15.8%Lowest and highest reading in Northern Africa.
- Southern Europe
5.8%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 17 members
Kosovo4.0%Albania11.8%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Europe.
- Central Asia
6.1%
the middle country, of 5 measured · 5 members
Uzbekistan3.4%
Kyrgyzstan9.2%Lowest and highest reading in Central Asia.
- Western Asia
9.7%
the middle country, of 12 measured · 19 members
Israel0.8%
Yemen29.6%Lowest and highest reading in Western Asia.
- South-eastern Asia
16.0%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 11 members
Singapore0.1%
Laos30.5%Lowest and highest reading in South-eastern Asia.
- Southern Asia
20.8%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Maldives2.2%Bangladesh47.2%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Asia.
- South America
21.6%
the middle country, of 9 measured · 12 members
Chile0.0%Suriname36.0%Lowest and highest reading in South America.
- Central America
24.6%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 8 members
Costa Rica17.1%
Honduras34.0%Lowest and highest reading in Central America.
- Caribbean
25.1%
the middle country, of 6 measured · 24 members
Trinidad and Tobago4.2%
Dominican Republic31.5%Lowest and highest reading in Caribbean.
- Western Africa
27.5%
the middle country, of 15 measured · 16 members
Cabo Verde8.4%Burkina Faso51.3%Lowest and highest reading in Western Africa.
- Middle Africa
28.9%
the middle country, of 8 measured · 9 members
Gabon13.3%Central African Republic61.0%Lowest and highest reading in Middle Africa.
- Eastern Africa
29.1%
the middle country, of 13 measured · 19 members
Rwanda5.5%
Mozambique48.4%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Africa.
- Eastern Asia
3 of 8 measured — too few for a middle: China, Mongolia, North Korea.
North Korea0.1%
Mongolia8.1%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Asia.
- Eastern Europe
3 of 10 measured — too few for a middle: Belarus, Romania, Russia.
Belarus4.7%
Romania6.9%Lowest and highest reading in Eastern Europe.
- Melanesia
4 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
Fiji4.0%Papua New Guinea27.3%Lowest and highest reading in Melanesia.
- Micronesia
2 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Kiribati, Nauru.
Nauru18.2%
Kiribati18.4%Lowest and highest reading in Micronesia.
- Polynesia
3 of 7 measured — too few for a middle: Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu.
Tuvalu1.8%
Tonga10.1%Lowest and highest reading in Polynesia.
- Southern Africa
3 of 5 measured — too few for a middle: Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa.
Eswatini1.9%
Lesotho13.4%Lowest and highest reading in Southern Africa.
- Western Europe
1 of 9 measured — too few for a middle: Belgium.
Belgium0.1%Lowest and highest reading in Western Europe.
03The whole field at once
The spread
125 countries, one dot each, on one scale — further right is a higher value. Half the countries are above 16.1%; a quarter are above 27.9%, and a quarter below 6.1%. The bar in each row marks that continent’s middle country.
04All 145 ever measured
Every country
In order, highest value first — position 1 is the highest value, the way UNICEF’s own tables read. “=” marks a position shared with another country. UNICEF ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. Survey data, so the rows do not share a year: each country’s figure comes from whenever its last survey ran, between 2006 and 2025. The survey year and data source columns are part of the reading rather than decoration — a 2021 MICS round and a 2023 population register are not the same kind of number.
Showing 25 of 145 countries
Values for the 2025 edition.
05In this edition
Child marriage in records
The extremes of the statistic. A record reached by more than one country names none of them.
Highest reading
61.0%
Women 20–24 married before 18 (%)
Lowest reading
Reached 3 times by 3 countries — shared, so no holder is named
0.0%
Women 20–24 married before 18 (%)
06The measure
About child marriage
Child marriage here is the share of women aged 20–24 who were married or in union before their eighteenth birthday — the standard measure, asked of women old enough to have finished the risk period. UNICEF compiles it from national surveys across 145 countries.
What the number is: Women 20–24 married before 18 (%).
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 Development & Human Capital and Gender & Equality, but does not help decide any Country Index standing.
Development & Human CapitalGender & EqualityWhich statistics vote, and why
Moves with
Where child marriage is higher, these tend to be higher too.
- Adolescent Birth Rate (Ages 15–19)UN DESA Population Division · 125 countries in commonρ 0.84
- Gender Inequality IndexUNDP Human Development Report Office · 116 countries in commonρ 0.75
- Self-Employment RateILO · 118 countries in commonρ 0.72
Moves against
Where child marriage is higher, these tend to be lower.
- Mean Age at First Marriage, WomenUN DESA Population Division · 115 countries in commonρ −0.79
- Smartphone OwnershipWorld Bank Group · 92 countries in commonρ −0.74
- Productive Capacities IndexUNCTAD · 121 countries in commonρ −0.74
Rank correlation (ρ, from −1 to 1) across countries, on each statistic’s newest edition, out of 324 statistics sharing at least 80 countries with this one. Two statistics that move together do not cause each other.
08Keep reading
Explore further
The subject
The data, edition by edition
The countries at either end
More from UNICEF
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- Caesarean Section Rate
- Care-Seeking for Children with Symptoms of Pneumonia
- Children with Functional Difficulties
- Children's Climate Risk Index
- Completeness of Birth Registration
- Early Initiation of Breastfeeding
- Exclusive Breastfeeding Under Six Months
- All statistics
09Questions
Child marriage: questions and answers
Which country has the lowest child marriage?
3 countries share the lowest reading, 0.0%, among the 125 compared in the 2025 edition, so no single country is named.
Which country has the highest child marriage?
Central African Republic, at 61.0%, among the 125 countries compared in the 2025 edition.
How many countries does the Child Marriage cover?
125 in the 2025 edition, and 145 at least once across all editions.
What is the world average child marriage?
This site does not calculate a world average, which would depend on how countries are weighted. In the middle country of the 125 compared in the 2025 edition, the figure was 16.1%.
Is this UNICEF’s own ranking?
No. UNICEF publishes the values but ranks nobody; the position on this page is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values, and equal values share a position.
How often is the Child Marriage published?
This site holds one edition, describing 2025.
Where does the data come from, and can I download it?
From UNICEF, under CC BY 3.0 IGO. From UNICEF’s SDMX data warehouse, stored at one decimal, which is the precision UNICEF and the underlying DHS and MICS rounds publish rather than a truncation applied here. 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
Child Marriage — UNICEF
From UNICEF’s SDMX data warehouse, stored at one decimal, which is the precision UNICEF and the underlying DHS and MICS rounds publish rather than a truncation applied here.
Newest edition
Report year 2025Data year not recorded
Cite the source as: UNICEF. UNICEF global databases: Child marriage. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund.
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO, checked 2026-09-05.
How this page reads the numbers
- UNICEF ranks nobody on this measure. The position is derived by Nations Inquiry by ordering the published values; equal values share a position.
- Which end is better follows the publisher’s own reading of the measure.
- 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 2015 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). Child marriage by country: Child Marriage, data from UNICEF. https://nationsinquiry.com/statistics/child-marriage