Worldwide, one in five girls enters a formal or informal marriage before reaching the age of 18. According to the UN Population Fund, to date approximately 640 million girls have married before reaching adulthood.
Every year, 12 million adolescent girls get married before the age of 18. This means that every 3 seconds one girl gets married. The highest occurrence is found in countries of South Asia and Africa.
In Central Asia, the indicator has decreased: while it was 13 percent in 1999, by 2024 it had fallen to 6 percent.
According to the provided data for Uzbekistan for 1997–2022:
- married before age 15: 48.5 thousand
- married before age 18: 1.1 million
By regions, the highest rate was recorded in Samarkand at 3 percent, Andijan at 2 percent, Fergana at 1 percent, and Karakalpakstan at 0.8 percent.
There is also good news: child marriage is gradually declining worldwide. If in 2000 one third of women aged 20–24 had married before reaching adulthood, in 2021 this figure fell to one fifth. Over the past 25 years, 68 million child marriages have been prevented.
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