Did You Know?
Many orphans worldwide have lost their parents due to armed conflict or disease, such as AIDS. In some countries, however, children are being increasingly abandoned at an alarming rate due to poverty, restrictive population control policies, disabilities or perceived disabilities, and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls.
- 143 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents.
- At least 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both parents.
- 16 million children were newly orphaned in 2003.
- Armed conflicts orphaned or separated 1 million children from their families in the 1990s.
- Two to five percent of all refugees worldwide are children living without their parents.
- The proportion of children who are orphans generally increases with age.
- 12% (17.5 million) are 0-5 years.
- 33% (47 million) are 6-11 years.
- 55% (79 million) are 12-17 years old.
Where the Orphans Live:
- 87.6 million orphans live in Asia.
- 43.4 million orphans live in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Almost 1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe.
- More than 800,000 children pass through America's foster care system each year.
Orphans and HIV/AIDS
- Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent due to AIDS.
- By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS globally is expected to exceed 25 million.
- More than 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
- AIDS is more likely than other causes of death to cause a child to loose both parents.
- As the infection spreads, the number of children who have lost parents to AIDS is beginning to grow in other regions as well, including Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.
