Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 15
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years old-%3.9
20 - 24 years old-%6.3
Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 15 - Rural
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years oldRural%3.9
20 - 24 years oldRural%6
Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 15 - Urban
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years oldUrban%3.9
20 - 24 years oldUrban%6.6
Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 18
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years old-%-
20 - 24 years old-%33.5
Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 18 - Rural
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years oldRural%-
20 - 24 years oldRural%33.7
Description: Proportion of women aged 15-24 who were married or in a union before age 18 - Urban
Sub descriptionUrban/RuralUnit2015
15 - 19 years oldUrban%-
20 - 24 years oldUrban%33.2
  • 1 - 12

Graph

Select Indicator from the drop down list below.

Select Records to Create Your Chart

Selection uses the standard keyboard modifiers to select or unselect.

Holding the Shift key while clicking or moving with arrow keys will select a range of rows.

Holding the Ctrl key while clicking or while moving with the arrow keys and using the Space key will select or unselect a row. Ctrl+A will select all.


Chart

DATA IDENTIFICATION


Name
Proportion of men or women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 15 and before age 18
Indicator purpose

This indicator provides the proportion of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union by age 15 and age 18.

Abstract

Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Child marriage often compromises a girl’s development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her schooling, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement and placing her at increased risk of intimate partner violence. In many cultures, girls reaching puberty are expected to assume gender roles associated with womanhood. These include entering a union and becoming a mother.

Data source

SIB/MICS

DATA CHARACTERISTICS



Contact organization person

SIB/MICS

Date last updated
02-OCT-2019
Periodicity

Annual

Unit of measure

Percentage (%)

Other characteristics

The issue of child marriage is addressed in several international conventions and agreements. Although marriage is not mentioned directly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child marriage is linked to other rights – such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to protection from all forms of abuse, and the right to be protected from harmful traditional practices.

 

DATA CONCEPTS and CLASSIFICATIONS



Classification used

Both formal (i.e., marriages) and informal unions are covered under this indicator.

Informal unions are generally defined as those in which a couple lives together for some time, intends to have a lasting relationship, but for which there has been no formal civil or religious ceremony (i.e., cohabitation).

Disaggregation

is by age, income, place of residence, geographic location, education, ethnicity (for some countries).

Key statistical concepts

This is indicator is calculated by the number of women aged 20-24 who were first married or in union before age 15 (or before age 18) divided by the total number of women aged 20-24 in the population multiplied by 100.

Formula
-
OTHER ASPECTS



Recommended uses

This indicator is used to measure the number of women aged 20-24 who were first married or in union before age 15 (or before age 18) and to halve that number of women aged 20-24 who were first married or in union before age 15 (or before age 18) or have no women married or in a union before age 15 (or before age 18).

Limitations

N/A

Other comments

There are existing tools and mechanisms for data collection that countries have implemented to monitor the situation with regards to this indicator. The modules used to collect information on marital status among women and men of reproductive age (15-49 years) in the DHS and MICS have been fully harmonized. 

All the metadata shown in this document was gathered from United Nation Statistics Division. The metadata was extracted from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/.