Children in This Country Lose Their Childhood the Most

Many children around the world are robbed of their childhood due to death, chronic malnutrition, dropping out of school, forced labor, and child marriage. Children in poor and developing countries are particularly vulnerable to losing their childhood.

The Global Childhood Report released the End of Childhood Index 2021. According to this index, the lower a country's End of Childhood Index score, the more children in that country are deprived of their childhood.

Niger scored the lowest on the End of Childhood Index, with a score of 392 out of 1,000. This means that children in Niger are most likely to lose their childhood. The next lowest scoring countries were the Central African Republic (399), Chad (450), Somalia (489), and South Sudan (499).

The End of Childhood Index is calculated based on eight indicators: under-five mortality rate, stunting rate, school dropout rate, child labor rate, child marriage rate, and child violence.

In 2019, Niger had a very high adolescent birth rate of 183 per 1,000 adolescents. Meanwhile, the percentage of child marriages among 15-19 year olds reached 57.5%.