#YouthStats: Girls and Young Women

 

Education

  • The vast majority of the world’s youth are literate: 87 per cent of young women and 92 per cent of young men have basic reading and writing skills. 
    [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Education”, 2015, p.81, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]
  • 60% of women ages 25 and older have at least some secondary education, compared with 67% of men. [UNDP, 2014, http://bit.ly/1e3ZTOZ]

[UN Women, “Infographic: Human rights of women”, 08 December 2015, http://goo.gl/NJlJBa]

  • Only about 2 out of 130 countries have achieved gender parity at all levels of education. [UNDP, 2013, http://bit.ly/1IzcFgC]
  • Gross enrollment ratios in secondary education are nearly 30% lower in conflict affected countries (48%) than in others (67%) and far lower for girls. [UNHCR]
  • An extra year of secondary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 15 % to 25%. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • A World Bank study of 100 countries found that every 1% increase in the proportion of women with secondary education boosts a country’s annual per capita income growth rate by about 0.3 percentage points. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • Inadequate facilities at schools force millions of girls around the world to miss class during menstruation. It’s estimated that more than half of schools in low-income countries lack sufficient toilets for girls or are unsafe and unclean. [UNGEI, 2014, http://bit.ly/1NbHn2H]

 

  • The likelihood of exclusion from education continues to be most problematic among young women in sub-Saharan Africa where still one-half (49.8 per cent) of the female youth population had either no education or limited education. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • At 48%, gross enrollment ratios in secondary education are nearly 20% lower in conflict-affected countries and are far lower for girls [UNDP, Fast Facts: Youth and Peacebuilding, 2015, http://goo.gl/I7Bmdr]

 

[UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Education”, http://goo.gl/xeN48m] 

  • The proportion of women graduating in the fields of science (1 in 14, compared to 1 in 9 men graduates) and engineering (1 in 20, compared to 1 in 5 men graduates) remain low in poor and rich countries alike. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Education”, p.59, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]
  • More boys than girls participate in Technical and Vocational Education and Training programmes (TVET) in 86 per cent of countries. Globally, the share of girls in TVET programmes was 44 percent in 2012, unchanged since 1990; however, in Latin American and the Caribbean, their share was 53 per cent. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Education”, p.72, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]
  • Increasing women and girls’ education contributes to higher economic growth. Increased educational attainment accounts for about 50 per cent of the economic growth in OECD countries over the past 50 years, of which over half is due to girls having had access to higher levels of education and achieving greater equality. [UN WOMEN, “Facts and Figures: Economic Empowerment”, http://goo.gl/wuBGoR]

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Employment

  • A university educated young woman is 1.9 times more likely to complete the labour market transition than a less-educated (primary level) woman. It takes an average of 7.8 months for young women to attain the first job after completing education. Young men transit quicker, with an average length of 6.9 months. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • Globally, the Labour Force Participation Rate of young women fell from 51 to 39 per cent, between 1990 and 2013. [UN WOMEN, Progress of the World’s women 2015-2016, p.80, http://goo.gl/zqrm13]
  • Globally, women’s share of access to paid employment in non-agricultural sectors increased from 35% in 1990 to 40% in 2012. [UN MDG, 2014, http://bit.ly/1qDMdg9]
  • Women in Northern Africa hold less than one in 5 paid jobs in the non-agricultural sector. [UN MDG, 2014, http://bit.ly/1qDMdg9] 

 

  • When women and girls over 16 earn income, they reinvest 90% of it in their families, compared to men who reinvest only 30% to 40%. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of inactive, non-student youth are female. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • At the global level, the female youth unemployment rate was 13.6 per cent in 2014 compared to 12.6 per cent for young men. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • For youth, declining labour force participation rates (LFPR) among males in all regions and mixed regional trends among females have resulted in decreased gender gaps in all regions but Central and South-Eastern Europe (non-EU) and CIS and South-East Asia and the Pacific. Nevertheless, the size of the gap remains excessively large – above 20 percentage points – in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • The gender gap in labour underutilization of youth exists in all regions but is largest in the five countries of the Middle East and North Africa, where 49.3 per cent of the female youth population remains underutilized (as unemployed, in irregular work or as inactive non-students) compared to 32.0 per cent of the male youth population. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • Overall, the female youth NEET rate (share of youth neither in employment nor in education or training in the youth population) among SWTS countries is double that of young males at 29.7 and 15.1 per cent, respectively. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • Across regions, the female NEET rate ranged from 22.5 per cent in the SWTS countries of sub-Saharan Africa to 42.5 per cent in the Middle East and North African region. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • Among the SWTS countries still 5.6 per cent of young females and 3.3 per cent of young males never attended school, and another 23.7 and 22.3 per cent of young women and men, respectively, left school before completion. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • Among the SWTS low-income countries, the gender gap (female-to-male) in the youth unemployment rate among university graduates was 12 percentage points compared to a 3 percentage points for youth with primary education. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • The third- and fourth-ranked occupations for young female workers in the SWTS countries are teaching (7.5 per cent) and personal care work (6.8 per cent); for young men, top occupations are agricultural labourers (7.1 per cent) and building and related trades workers (6.9 per cent). [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • The gender wage gap (male-female) remains positive in all SWTS countries (between 1 and 35.8 per cent) and within all occupations. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • The labour market transitions of young women are less certain than for young men.  For the age group 25‒29, that at which a young person would be most expected to have completed the transition, a young male is 1.9 times more likely to have completed his labour market transition than a young female. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • For youth who changed jobs after the first one, the full length of transition from school to current stable and/or satisfactory job can be extremely long; the average length for young women between first and current “transited” job was 34.9 months compared to 37.3 months for young men. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • One-third (32.7 per cent) of inactive non-student females had no work experience prior to inactivity compared to 18.1 per cent of inactive non-student males. With a few exceptions, the majority of countries show that young women who dropped out of the labour market continued in their inactivity. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • In the Middle East and North Africa region 51 per cent of young women were unemployed in 2013. This compares to the global unemployment rate of 7 per cent for women. [UN WOMEN, Progress of the World’s women 2015-2016, p.72, http://goo.gl/zqrm13]
  • Globally women earn 24  percent less than men and hold only 25 percent of administrative and managerial positions in the business world—while 32  percent of businesses have no women in senior management positions. Women still hold only 22  percent of seats in single or lower houses of national parliament. [UNDP Human Development Report 2015, p.4, http://goo.gl/N23OP9]
  • Having children serves as a push factor towards employment for young men but has the opposite impact for young women. Less than one in two (45.9 per cent) young mothers work compared to more than four in five (83.6 per cent) young fathers. [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]

 

[UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Education”, http://goo.gl/xeN48m]  

Marriage

  • In developing countries, 1 in 3 girls is married before her 18th birthday and across the world, more than half of all sexual assaults take place against girls younger than 16. [Global Partnership for Youth in the Post 2015 Agenda, http://bit.ly/1NbKMys]
  • Early marriage and motherhood remain stubborn impediments to female access to education and labour market participation in many developing countries. The shares of female adolescents (15‒19) who are already mothers are especially high among countries in the Middle East and North Africa (37.8 per cent, on average) and subSaharan Africa (15.9 per cent). [ILO, Young and female – a double strike? Gender analysis of school-to-work transition surveys in 32 developing countries, 2016, pp.4-5, http://goo.gl/pN8x9Z]
  • The age at marriage has increased to 25 years for women and 29 years for men, about 1 year later for both compared to two decades ago. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]

 

[UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, http://goo.gl/xeN48m]

  • Age at marriage has been the highest and has increased the most in developed regions, where women marry at age 29 and men at age 31, on average. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, p.22, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]
  • Globally, 27 per cent of young women aged 20-24 were married or in union before age 18 (and 8 per cent before age 15). For the least developed countries these numbers were 45 per cent (and 15 per cent respectively). These proportions are specifically very high in South Asia (45% (and 15%)) and Sub-Saharan Africa (40% (and 12%)). [UNICEF, Global Databases, 2014, Based on latest data from DHS, MICS and other national household surveys]
  • Girls in the poorest 20 per cent of the population (poorest quintile) are much more likely to marry at a young age compared to those in the wealthiest quintile, and girls living in rural areas are more likely than those in urban areas to marry young. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, 148, http://goo.gl/kNchT8] 
  • Women continue to marry at the youngest ages in Southern Asia and sub SaharanAfrica. Currently, for women in these regions, age at marriage averages 21 and 22 years, respectively, while men on average marry at age 26 and 27, respectively. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, p.14, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]
  • Child marriage has declined; still, almost half of women aged 20 to 24 in Southern Asia and twofifths in sub-Saharan Africa marry before age 18. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, p.1, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]

 

[UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, http://goo.gl/xeN48m]

Sexual and Reproductive Health

  • In 2015, 12.8 million adolescent girls have an unmet need for family planning. This number will increase to 15 million by 2030 if current trends continue. Of the 12.8 million adolescent girls, about half live in Asia and the Pacific and more than 30 per cent live in West and Central Africa and East and Southern Africa. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p.81, http://goo.gl/uv6fXU]
  • An estimated 250 million adolescent girls live in developing countries, accounting for about one-sixth of all women of reproductive age. More than one in five of these adolescent girls are currently married or in a union, and 3 per cent are unmarried but sexually active. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 5, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]
  • Statistical analysis based on data from 96 UNFPA programme countries shows that levels of adolescent fertility are higher in rural areas, where adolescents are poorer and less educated. West and Central Africa has the largest rural/urban disparity, where adolescents living in rural areas are more than two times as likely to give birth their urban counterparts (167 vs. 77 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19). [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 47, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]
  • The largest education inequality is in Latin America and the Caribbean, where there are 234 live births among adolescent girls with no education, versus 63 live births for girls with secondary or higher education, close to four times higher. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 47, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]
  • Latin America and the Caribbean also has the largest wealth inequality. Adolescent girls living in the poorest 20 per cent of households were 5.5 times as likely to give birth as girls in the richest 20 per cent of households (131 births versus 24 births). [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 47, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]

 

[UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 48, http://goo.gl/21AK10]

  • Globally in 2015, 15.2 million births took place among adolescent girls, with an estimated 19.6 million in 2035. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 34, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]
  • Adolescent birth rates declined almost everywhere but are still high in many African and LatinAmerican and Caribbean countries. [UN Statistics, The World’s Women, “Population”, p.1, http://goo.gl/kNchT8]

[UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p.33, http://goo.gl/21AK1o]

  • In 2015, Africa and Asia and the Pacific account for almost 80 per cent of total live births among adolescent girls in the developing world—5.2 million in Asia and the Pacific, 3.3 million in East and Southern Africa, and 2.7 million in West and Central Africa. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 35, http://goo.gl/uv6fXU]
  • The World Bank has shown that for every year a young woman remains in school after age 11, the risk of unplanned pregnancy declines by 7 per cent per year for adolescent girls through the primary school years, and 6 per cent annually throughout secondary school.  [The World Bank, Age at first child: Does education delay fertility timing? The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, Washington D.C. : The World Bank]
  • Each year approximately 16 million adolescent girls give birth, the majority of which occur among married girls in developing countries. Pregnancy and childbirth‐related complications are the number one killers of girls aged 15-19. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • One in 7 girls in developing countries are married before age 15, and 38% are married before the age of 18. If present trends continue, 100 million girls will marry over the next decade, equaling 25,000 girls married every day for the next 10 years. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • In developing countries, about 15 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 who are married or in a union are using modern contraceptive methods. The pill and injectable account for more than 70 per cent of their total use of modern methods, followed by male condoms at 21 per cent. IUDs comprise only 5 per cent of use in the developing world as a whole, but account for 38 per cent in the Arab States and 33 per cent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. [UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 40, http://goo.gl/aXDhDF]

[UNFPA, Universal Access to Reproductive Health: Progress and Challenges, p. 41, http://goo.gl/21AK10]

  • Complications during pregnancy and childbearing are leading causes of death among adolescent girls between 15 and 19 years old. [UN WOMEN, Progress of the World’s women 2015-2016, p.219, http://goo.gl/vOdm0v]
  • Every year, some 3 million 15-19 year-old girls in this age bracket resort to unsafe abortions, risking their lives and health. [WHO, 2014, http://bit.ly/1mTR1ZO]
  • Complications linked to pregnancy and childbirth are the second  leading cause of death for 15-19 year-old girls globally. [WHO, 2014, http://bit.ly/1mTR1ZO]
  • Over 125 million girls and women today have been subjected to female genital mutilation in countries in Africa and Western Asia, where this specific form of violence against girls and women is concentrated. [UNSD, 2015, The World’s Women–At a glance: http://goo.gl/5wG9tE]

HIV/AIDS

  • Adolescent girls and young women are most vulnerable to HIV in sub-Saharan Africa—and account for 1 in 4 new HIV infections.[UNAIDS, 2014, http://bit.ly/1KdhOR5]
  • In sub-Saharan Africa only 10% of young men and 15% of young women aged 15-24 are aware of their HIV status. [WHO, 2015, http://bit.ly/1i38ptW]
  • Young women aged 15–24 years are as much as 8 times more likely than men to be HIV positive. [UNFPA UNICEF, 2011,  http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • In 2013, almost 60 per cent of all new HIV infections among young persons occurred among adolescent girls and young women; this translates into almost 1,000 young women newly infected with HIV every day. [UNAIDS, 2014, The Gap Report, p. 127, 135, http://goo.gl/0SeKqQ]

Violence

  • Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence. 8 out of 10 adolescent girls who died as a result of violence were between the ages of 15-19. [UNFPA, 2014]
  • Globally, about 30% of girls aged 15 to 19 experience violence by a partner. [WHO, 2014, http://bit.ly/1i38ptW]
  • One in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence -mostly by an intimate partner. [WHO, 2013, http://bit.ly/1mGKUd3]
  • Women and girls make up 80% of the estimated 800,000 people trafficked across national borders annually with the majority (79%) trafficked for sexual exploitation. [UNFPA & UNICEF, Co‐Chairs of the United Nations Adolescent Girls Task Force, 2011, http://bit.ly/R7ATei]
  • In regions with high prevalence of armed violence, male victims between 15-19 are amongst one of the most affected group by homicides by firearms, while women and girls are at high risk of being killed by their partners. [UNODC, 2013, Global Study on Homicide, http://bit.ly/1n7PUr9]
  • The first sexual experience of some 30 percent of women was forced. The percentage is even higher among those who were under 15 at the time of their sexual initiation, with up to 45 percent reporting that the experience was forced. [UN WOMEN, “Fast facts: statistics on violence against women and girls”, http://goo.gl/3zrUL0] 
  • An estimated 120 million girls and women under age 20 (about 1 in 10) have been subjected to forced sexual intercourse or other forced sexual acts. The proportion of women whose first experience of sexual intercourse was forced against their will is almost 30 per cent in some countries. By far the most common perpetrators of sexual violence against girls are current or former husbands, partners or boyfriends. [UNICEF – Hidden in Plain Sight, September 2014, pg 4: http://goo.gl/VzzAwV]
  •  Sexual violence against adolescent girls was reported in all 51 countries that have experienced conflict since 1986. [UNHCR]
  • Adolescents, particularly girls, are especially vulnerable to sexual violence, which further increases the risks of unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortions and STIs including HIV. [UNFPA, 2012, http://bit.ly/1GyXqCM]
  • During conflict weakened institutions, poverty and financial hardship leave adolescent girls vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence (including risky livelihoods). [Women Refugee Comission, 2014, http://bit.ly/1J666EM]

Political Participation

  • The percentage of women in parliament (world average for both houses combined) in 1995 was 11.3% and increased to 21.8% in 2014. It will take another 40 years to reach equal representation at the current pace. [FAO]
  • Only one in 5 parliamentarians is female. In 37 countries, women account for less than 10% of parliamentarians. [UN Women, 2014, http://bit.ly/1sUoUk2]
  • Only 21.8% of national parliamentarians were female as of 1 July 2014, a slow increase from 11.3% in 1995. [UN Women, 2014, http://bit.ly/1sUoUk2]
  • As of January 2014, 9 women served as Heads of State and 15 served as Heads of Government. [UN Women, 2014, http://bit.ly/1sUoUk2]
  • Rwanda had the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide. Women there have won 63.8 % of seats in the lower house. [UN Women, 2014, http://bit.ly/1sUoUk2]
  • Globally, there are 38 States in which women account for less than 10% of parliamentarians in single or lower houses, as of January 2014. [UN Women, 2014, http://bit.ly/1sUoUk2]

Hunger

  • WFP estimates that around 60% of the world’s chronically hungry people are women and girls. [FAO, 2013, http://bit.ly/1GIzWOU]
  • More one in 3 of girls aged 15-19 are anaemic in 21 of 41 countries where UNICEF collected data. [UNICEF, 2012, http://uni.cf/1O3yXfe]
  • If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million. [ FAO, 2011, http://bit.ly/1lFgslv]

PDF Version: Youth Stats: Girls & Young Women