International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)

© Evgeni Zotov

World Day against Child Labour

Kyrgyzstan: Looking for digital solutions to combat child labour

The ILO in Kyrgyzstan partnered with young information technology (IT) specialists to find ways of applying innovative digital technologies to help monitor child labour.
World Day Against Child Labour

Generation Safe & Healthy

This year, the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) and the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (SafeDay) shine a spotlight on the global need to improve the safety and health of young workers and end child labour.
Towards the urgent elimination of hazardous child labour

“Children are more vulnerable to risk than adults. Urgent action is needed to ensure no child under the age of 18 is in hazardous child labour,” says ILO Director-General Guy Ryder on the occasion of World Day against Child Labour.
- Poverty leads children from Madagascar to work in dangerous conditions
World Day Against Child Labour 2018

Generation Safe & Healthy!

This year, the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) and the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (SafeDay) are coming together in a joint campaign to improve the safety and health of young workers and end child labour.
Poverty leads children from Madagascar to work in dangerous conditions

Almost half of the 152 million victims of child labour – 73 million – toil in hazardous work. In Madagascar, children in child labour in brickmaking and in domestic work, are among those who need to be protected.
Giving Madagascar’s child domestic workers a second chance

In Madagascar, driven by poverty and lack of opportunity, many children work as domestic workers in conditions that can be dangerous for their health and safety. A project of the International Labour Organization aims to reduce the number of children in domestic work through awareness-raising and skills training.

Facts and figures

Worldwide 218 million children between 5 and 17 years are in employment.
Among them, 152 million are victims of child labour; almost half of them, 73 million, work in hazardous child labour.
In absolute terms, almost half of child labour (72.1 million) is to be found in Africa; 62.1 million in the Asia and the Pacific; 10.7 million in the Americas; 1.2 million in the Arab States and 5.5 million in Europe and Central Asia.
In terms of prevalence, 1 in 5 children in Africa (19.6%) are in child labour, whilst prevalence in other regions is between 3% and 7%: 2.9% in the Arab States (1 in 35 children); 4.1% in Europe and Central Asia (1 in 25); 5.3% in the Americas (1 in 19) and 7.4% in Asia and the Pacific region (1 in 14).
Almost half of all 152 million children victims of child labour are aged 5-11 years.
42 million (28%) are 12-14 years old; and 37 million (24%) are 15-17 years old.
Hazardous child labour is most prevalent among the 15-17 years old. Nevertheless up to a fourth of all hazardous child labour (19 million) is done by children less than 12 years old.
Among 152 million children in child labour, 88 million are boys and 64 million are girls.
58% of all children in child labour and 62% of all children in hazardous work are boys. Boys appear to face a greater risk of child labour than girls, but this may also be a reflection of an under-reporting of girls’ work, particularly in domestic child labour.
Child labour is concentrated primarily in agriculture (71%), which includes fishing, forestry, livestock herding and aquaculture, and comprises both subsistence and commercial farming; 17% in Services; and 12% in the Industrial sector, including mining.