Leading Global Data on Child Marriage

Child Marriage Indicators

Child marriage is a very harmful practice which limits the autonomy, opportunity, and prospects of boys and girls around the globe. It increases the chances of domestic abuse and the odds of dropping out of school. Children who are often still under the legal control of their parents can be forced into these marriages at a very young age, without any choice in the process. Child marriage impacts both boys and girls, but it disproportionately impacts young girls, who make up over 80% of all child marriages. Yet despite these harms, around one fifth of all women continue to be married as children.

Measuring child marriage can be challenging, since many countries have formal laws against it, but allow legal exceptions in specific cases, such as allowing religious law to take precedence. Even when there are strong legal protections against child marriage, the actual prevalence is often much higher. Countries may pass laws to appease international monitors, but allow marriages in practice to appease their populations, or certain religious or ethnic groups where the practices are more common. This means that a full picture of child marriage needs both data on the de jure component of whether or not the practice is illegal (and what if any exceptions are allowed) as well as a de facto component tracking the actual prevalence rate in the country.

1. WORLD Policy Analysis Center

The WORLD Policy Analysis Center out of UCLA conducts legal reviews of the de jure rights that are protected in law in countries around the world. Their data cover all kinds of issues ranging from workplace discrimination and gender equality, to health and education. They are one of the few datasets that has data on concepts like disability rights and child marriage. Their data are solely based on the legal frameworks in countries, not de facto data, however they cover a wide range of concepts.

While the dataset is only de jure, it has several advantages over the other de jure datasets listed here. Unlike most datasets which just have a binary for whether or not child marriage is legal, WORLD looks at the overall law as well as the specific exceptions to that law (loopholes, religious exemptions, etc.). It also disaggregates laws for boys and girls, as these are often different. You can contact them here or via email (world@ph.ucla.edu).

• Update Frequency: On a rolling basis, some datasets are updated annually, others every 3 years.

• Country Coverage: 193 Countries (76 LIC/LMIC) in 2025

• Data Gathering Methodology: Legal Review

• Concepts Covered: Legal age of marriage with exceptions and without exceptions. Specific types of exceptions including religious exemptions, parental consent, and other loopholes.

• Further Disaggregation: Separated out by boys and girls, with separate indicators for whether there is a disparity between the age of marriage for boys and girls.

• Ranking and Aggregation: Minimal. In addition to the specific questions the dataset has general questions which whether any exceptions exist and what the minimum age would be with all exceptions taken into account.

2. UNICEF

UNICEF maintains the only real database of the de facto rate of Child Marriage. Other organizations host a similar dataset, but they are all various versions of reposting the underlying data from UNICEF. These data are based on the household surveys like the Demographics and Health Survey (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). Components of these data are also reported as SDG 5.3.1. The biggest challenge with these data is their country coverage is very poor. While the dataset itself is updated annually, the most recent data for many countries are five or more years old.

• Update Frequency: Annually in the spring (actual country data is often older)

• Country Coverage: 141 Countries (74 LICs/LMICs)

• Data Gathering Methodology: Household survey

• Concepts Covered: The prevalence of child marriage among adults 20 to 24 who were married as children.

• Further Disaggregation: Separated out by boys and girls, and by under 15 and under 18 for girls.

• Ranking and Aggregation: None

3. HerAtlas (UNESCO)

UNESCO has a dataset which tracks the right to education for girls around the world across a range of laws which can impact the ability of girls to access an education called "HerAtlas". One of these barriers is the legality of child marriage. Like WORLD, this dataset is only capturing the legal barriers, and does capture compliance with those laws. While these data do not have the same detail of WORLD, they provide more data than WBL below, including more than just a binary and including qualitative information on the specific laws.

• Update Frequency: Annually in October (but most data is 6 years old)

• Country Coverage: 194 Countries (76 LICs/LMICs)

• Data Gathering Methodology: Legal review

• Concepts Covered: Whether the legal age of marriage is set at least at 18 years old.

• Further Disaggregation: Differentiation between "yes" and "partial" explained in the qualitative data.

• Ranking and Aggregation: None

4. Women Business and the Law (World Bank)

The World Bank's Women Business and the Law (WBL) dataset, has a wide range of questions about women's legal rights around the world. While it is a fantastic dataset for many of these concepts, incorporating de jure, and newly some de facto data into their index. However, the coverage for child marriage is limited. In fact it was dropped from the official WBL 1.0 index half a decade ago, and has only reappeared in the 2.0 version of the index. The sole question on Child marriage is only a legal one (though other indicators incorporate de facto data). But it captures whether there are any exceptions to laws requiring that 18 is the age of marriage, and whether marriages between minors and adults are voidable. However, all of this is captured in a binary indicator, limiting the usefulness of these data. Tea Trumbic is a good point of contact for these data.

• Update Frequency: Annually in March (2025 was skipped, but another update is expected in 2026)

• Country Coverage: 194 Countries (76 LICs/LMICs)

• Data Gathering Methodology: Legal review

• Concepts Covered: Whether the legal age of marriage is set at least at 18 years old, there are no exceptions, marriages that were made against the law are voidable, and if there are penalties for entering or performing into such a marriage. To pass countries must satisfy all requirements.

• Further Disaggregation: None

• Ranking and Aggregation: This is aggregated up to an overall WBL Safety score as well as an overall WBL 2.0 score.