UNICEF has learned through experience that problems that go unmeasured often go unsolved. In collaboration with a wide range of partners, UNICEF gathers evidence on the situation of children and women around the world. It uses this knowledge to inform national and global decision-making with the objective of improving children’s well-being.

Some recent facts:

• 17,000 children die every day, mostly from preventable or treatable causes.
• The births of nearly 230 million children under age 5 worldwide (about one in three) have never been officially recorded, depriving them of their right to a name and nationality.
• 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1 billion who are forced to resort to open defecation for lack of other options.
• Out of an estimated 35 million people living with HIV, over 2 million are 10 to 19 years old, and 56 per cent of them are girls.
• Globally, about one third of women aged 20 to 24 were child brides.
• Every 10 minutes, somewhere in the world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence.
• Nearly half of all deaths in children under age 5 are attributable to undernutrition. This translates into the unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year.