COVID-19 and children data hub

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and will be borne by children for years to come. For millions, learning has come to a halt and essential health services like the delivery of life-saving vaccines are out of reach. Others have been plunged into a lifelong cycle of poverty. Using the latest available data, this hub highlights the impacts of the pandemic on children’s poverty, education, health, nutrition and more.

Access the hub

COVID-19

Publications

Datasets

Guidance

Journal articles

Data visualizations & dashboards

WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) 2022

Global vaccination continues to decline in 2021 with 25 million children missing out on lifesaving vaccines, 2 million more than in 2020, and 6 million more than in 2019. These numbers signal the largest continued decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years. The WHO/UNICEF estimates provide the world’s largest and most comprehensive data-set on immunization trends for vaccinations against 13 life-threatening diseases. This year, data were provided from 177 countries.

Centre of Excellence on Data for Children with Disabilities

The Centre will help fill data gaps on children with disabilities and meet the growing need for coordination, quality oversight and technical expertise in the field. It will support a broad range of activities to build the capacity of data producers and data users, facilitate the development of new methods and tools, and support data collection, data analysis, data interpretation and use, and knowledge generation.

 

insert_chart Recent data

Access all datasets
Children and the Sustainable Development Goals

Children and the Sustainable Development Goals

Adolescent Data Portal

Explore global, regional and country-level data on adolescent well-being

We believe that consistent, credible data about children’s situations are critical to the improvement of their lives – and indispensable to realizing the rights of every child.

1 in 4

children under the age of five officially do not exist

160 million

children worldwide were in child labour in 2020

1.6 billion

children worldwide were affected by school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic

3 billion

people worldwide do not have a handwashing facility with water and soap at home

6-7 million

additional children may have suffered from wasting or acute malnutrition due to COVID-19

Latest statistics

Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools: 2000-2021 Data update

This data update presents national, regional and global estimates for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools up to the year 2021, and includes additional analysis on efforts to prepare schools for future pandemics and provide disability-inclusive WASH services in schools. The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) produces internationally comparable estimates of progress on WASH and is responsible for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets related to WASH.

Are Children Really Learning? Exploring foundational skills in the midst of a learning crisis

With widespread school closures and other disruptions to the education system brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the learning crisis has escalated to new heights. As the pandemic enters its third year, 23 countries – home to around 405 million schoolchildren – are yet to fully open schools, with many schoolchildren at risk of dropping out. This report offers unique insight into the extent of the learning crisis by providing an in-depth picture of which children are most at risk of not acquiring foundational learning skills. 

Ensuring equal access to education in future crises: Remote Learning Readiness Index

As school closures are not unique to the COVID-19 outbreak and can take place due to conflicts, disease outbreaks, natural or man-made disasters, strengthening the resilience of the education sector against these negative shocks is critical for human capital gains and inclusive and equitable education for all. This report assesses educational resilience at a country level and introduces the Remote Learning Readiness Index to measure countries’ readiness to deliver remote learning during emergency school closures.

State of the World’s Hand Hygiene

Hygiene has long-established links with public health, but the COVID-19 pandemic thrust the issue of hand hygiene into prominence like never before. Globally, around 3 in 10 people – or 2.3 billion – do not have handwashing facilities with water and soap available at home. This report argues that accelerating progress towards “adequate and equitable hygiene for all” as called for in SDG target 6.2 is a no-regrets investment that leaves the world better prepared to manage future disease outbreaks and pandemics.

Browse more statistics

Essential links

Open Data Open Data