Youth Facts

“We've seen tremendous improvements in the health of younger children — huge declines in mortality in children under 5, declines of 80 percent in the last 15 years. For the adolescent age group, declines have been minimal and where they have occurred, they have been modest.” George Patton, Adolescent Health Researcher, NPR, May 13, 2016

 

“most of the world’s most violent conflicts occur in countries with the most youthful populations.” Implementing UNSCR 2250, United States Institute of Peace, June 2017

 

“Every estimate of direct conflict deaths suggests that more than 90 per cent of all casualties occur among young adult males.” The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of World Population 2015

 

“More than 600 million youth live in fragile and conflict-affected countries and terrirorites.” United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNDP Youth Strategy 2014-2017

 

“There is a big gap within the humanitarian community at large in collecting data on youth affected by conflict.” UNHCR, 2015

 

“It is well documented globally that humanitarian responses to a great extent focus on children below age 18 years, while adolescents and youth, however, are considered to be more resilient and, thus, of a lesser priority.” UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children International, 2014

 

“Adolescents aged 10-24 years represent over a quarter of the population (1.8 billion), 89% of whom live in developing countries. Their number is set to rise to about 2 billion by 2032.” The Lancet, May 9, 2019

 

“At the beginning of 2012, the world population surpassed 7 billion with people under the age of 30 accounting for more than half of this number (50.5%). The Asian region has the largest number of young people: 754 million. That number has nearly tripled since 1950.” UNESCO, 2013

"Urgent health challenges for the next decade: Over 1 million adolescents die every year. WHO will issue new guidance to promote adolescents’ mental health and prevent substance abuse, self-harm, interpersonal violence, sexually transmitted infections, contraception & care during pregnancy and childbirth." World Health Organization (WHO), January 15, 2020

"There are 1.8 billion young people in the world today — one of the largest cohorts in history. Imagine what our world would look like if every single one of these young people were supported to succeed?" Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director, UNICEF, January 24, 2020