The Number of Child Workers Aged 5-17 Years Has Decreased

The number of child workers aged 5-17 years in 2018 decreased compared to 2017. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that the number of child workers in 2018 was 981,900 or 2.65 percent of the total number of children aged 5-17 years. Meanwhile, in 2017, it reached 1.2 million child workers or 3.06 percent of the total number of children aged 5-17 years.

The decrease in the rate of child labor was also accompanied by a decrease in the population aged 5-17 years, from 40.6 million in 2017 to 37 million in 2018.

For three consecutive years, the dominance of child labor has remained in rural areas. In 2018, the rate of child labor was 3.2 percent. This means that there were 550,000 child workers out of a total of 17.2 million children aged 5-17 years.

Meanwhile, the rate of child labor in urban areas was 2.18 percent. This indicates that out of 19.8 million children aged 5-17 years, there were 431,800 child workers in urban areas.