The definition of an orphan for statistical purposes is a child under 18 years old who has lost one or both parents. A single orphan is a child who has lost one parent, a double orphan is a child who lost both parents. A maternal orphan is a child whose mother died, while a paternal orphan has lost the father. Crises such as disease or famine that affect children increase the rate of growth of orphans in the population. For statistical purposes, children are no longer considered orphans after they reach 18 years of age. Therefore, the number of orphans in a population group increases if the number of children losing their parents exceeds the number of orphans turning 18, causing the percentage of orphans in that population to rise also.

The data in the two charts were compiled and published by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, drawn from numerous organizations concerned with the global AIDS/HIV epidemic. As the bar graph shows, while the number of orphans in Asia has declined during the period from 1990 to 2010 (the latter based on projections), and has remained fairly stable in Latin America and the Caribbean, there has been a steady increase in the number of orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data is not given for the number of children in Asia who have been orphaned by HIV and other causes, but that figure is likely significant.

Figures for Africa show that in the benchmark years of 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005, the percentage of children orphaned in sub-Saharan African countries as a result of AIDS rose sharply from 1% to 7% to 17% to 25%, and is projected to reach 30% of all orphans by 2010. Among them are over 10 million children who have lost both parents. AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults ages 15-59, and it has produced 12 million orphans in the region. The rates of HIV deaths are not uniform across Sub-Saharan Africa, but are much higher in southern Africa, where as many as 15% of all children are orphans. Behind these figures is a tremendous toll of human suffering. Older children may act as caregivers for their parents or siblings who are ill, or grandparents may have to raise their grandchildren. Poor nutrition, inability to attend school, inability to concentrate, emotional trauma and depression are among the most serious effects, and children whose families have been touched by AIDS may also be stigmatized by others, further worsening these effects.

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The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

This chart tracks infant mortality according to the rate of infant (under five years old) deaths per 1000 live births in most world regions, except Northern America. Aggregate figures for developed and developing regions highlight the stark disparity in infant mortality rates. More than 12 times as many children die young in developing regions as in developed regions. In 1990, child mortality was 9 times higher than in 2007. While the total number of young children who died early in life decreased from 12.6 million in 1990 to about 9 million today, some regions show little progress during that period. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, nearly 1 in 7 children dies before the age of five, amounting to half of all such deaths worldwide. According to experts in public health, most of these deaths are from preventable causes.

Significant gains have been achieved worldwide by increasing immunization for childhood diseases and use of vitamins, treating mothers to prevent transmission of the HIV virus to their infants, encouraging mothers to breastfeed, and providing insecticidal bednets to prevent malaria. Other measures include improving access to clean water and improving sanitation, especially in rural areas. Improved pre-natal and birthing care, and education for mothers are other important factors that can help support further declines in infant mortality.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

Universal primary education in the context of the Millennium Development Goals means that all children have access to free, compulsory education from grades 1 through 5. Statistical indicators include net enrollment in school by children of the appropriate age, the proportion of pupils enrolled in first grade who reach grade 5, and the literacy rate of 15 to 24-year-olds.

The first chart tracks achievement of the goal based on the percentage of school-age children currently enrolled in school by world region. It shows that the most significant gains during the past seven years covered in the 2009 MDG report have taken place in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Smaller gains were achieved in Western Asia, Northern Africa, and the CIS, or Commonwealth of Independent States, the former Soviet Union. No significant gains were recorded in Southeastern Asia and Latin America/the Caribean, both of which are near 95% school enrollment. Eastern Asia and developed regions of the world in the aggregate showed slight declines in enrollment.

The second chart looks at the roughly 10 percent, or 72 million children, who are not in school. Three groups are identified, including those who dropped out of school for some reason, such as inability to pay for uniforms or books, child labor, distance from the school or unsafe conditions for travel to school. Northern and Southern Asia show the largest percentages of drop-outs. Another group represents delayed school entry, which is highest in Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia, and Latin America. The third group shows the percentage of children who are not expected to have the opportunity to enroll. Over 60% of those not in school in Western Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa may never attend school. In Northern and Eastern Asia, in contrast, school enrollment is expected for all but 5 and 2 percent of school-age children, respectively. The chart masks gender differences in those who are out of school, where dropout rates are higher for boys, but more girls in certain regions may not have access to education. Ethnic minorities often have decreased access to education.

The report concludes that at current rates, it is unlikely that the 2015 goal can be met, especially with the current global economic decline. Falling rates of investment in school construction, less aid to education, and scarcity of teachers make improvement difficult. Failure to meet education goals is worrisome because education levels impact child mortality, health, employment, and income prospects for youth and adults.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

Compared with a century ago or more, when female education was rare, girls’ access to education has improved dramatically. The charts measure gender parity by the number of girls enrolled per 100 boys in tertiary education such as colleges, universities, and technical training programs. A figure of 100 represents a 1:1 ratio, or parity. The charts show a higher proportion of girls than boys taking advantage of higher education after completing secondary schooling. In four world regions—Northern Africa, Southeastern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), significant gains for young women in higher education took place, their enrollment even overtaking that of young men. If this cohort completes higher education programs, it will have significant implications for the employment picture in these regions in the near future. Elsewhere in the world, fairly significant gains in girls’s participation in higher education took place, but fell short of achieving parity. Only in Sub-Saharan Africa was there a slight decline in gender parity during the period. Further, in developed regions, young women are enrolled in higher education at 129% of young men’s enrollment, and in developing regions they have achieved 96% of parity.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

The charts illustrate the aggregate data on gender parity in the world at three levels of education—primary, secondary, and higher, or tertiary education. Sixty-four percent of countries have achieved or exceeded gender parity in primary education, and less than a third of countries lagging behind in basic schooling. Sixty-five percent of countries have achieved or exceeded gender parity at the secondary education level, with more than a third still unable to offer secondary schooling to all girls. Only 6 per cent of countries have achieved parity in tertiary education for girls, but the disparity in favor of young women in higher education reflects the situation in developed countries. The 32 percent of countries that have not achieved gender parity in higher education include poorer countries where opportunities for higher education are relatively scarce, and girls remain at a disadvantage.

To further reveal the disparity among population groups, the second chart focuses on differences in residence and wealth related to gender parity in education, based on available data for 108 developing countries. In rural communities, only 39 percent of girls attend secondary education, in comparison with 45 percent of boys. By contrast, 59 percent of girls in urban areas attend secondary school—near parity with 60 percent of boys attending. Correlating household wealth with secondary school education, a tremendous gap between the wealthiest and the poorest in education opportunities becomes apparent. While 74 percent of boys and 72 percent of girls in the richest one fifth of families attend secondary school, only 31 percent of boys and 24 percent of girls in the poorest quintile of families attend secondary school.

To bridge these gaps, both cultural attitudes and public investment and policy need to be more favorable toward education. School fees, whether for tuition, transportation, uniforms or books are prohibitive barriers among poor families. There might not be sufficient daylight for rural students who have to travel long distances to attend secondary school to also study and complete household chores. Unsafe roads and concerns for the security of girls attending distant schools may also serve as cultural or practical barriers. However, the practice of secluding unmarried girls might be overcome through local recruitment of teachers or other creative means of achieving gender parity in education.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

Compared with a century ago or more when female education was rare, girls' access to education has improved dramatically. The charts measure gender parity by the number of girls enrolled in school per 100 boys. A figure of 100 represents a 1:1 ratio, or parity. Three regions—Southeastern Asia, Eastern Asia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are near parity in primary education, and all but Oceania (Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia) are at 90% of parity or better. Developed countries are at parity, while aggregate data for developing countries shows 95% of parity.

The second chart presents a picture of weaker gender parity in secondary education, or grades 6-12: slight losses in Sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and the CIS, and significant gains in Western and Southern Asia, and Northern Africa. During the period between 1999 and 2007, girls in Eastern Asia, Southeastern Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean exceeded boys in secondary education enrollment. Aggregate data for developing countries shows that the goal of parity in secondary education, though improving slowly, is within reach at 94%, though Sub-Saharan Africa, Western and Southern Asia, and Oceania must bridge a gap of between 13 and 21 percentage points to achieve parity. The statistics for girls' secondary education have negative implications for the future of gender parity or better in higher education in the next age cohort, or age group, preparing for higher education in the coming years.

Education of girls is viewed as a priority because it has been shown to affect many other areas of human welfare. Statistics have shown correlations between education of mothers and infant mortality, improvements in child nutrition and sanitation, delayed marriage, and predictors of school enrolment and success for the next generation.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals related to poverty, education, gender equality, health, environmental sustainability and development set in the year 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit, and adopted by 189 nations. The eight MDGs are associated with 21 quantifiable targets, tracked by 60 statistical indicators in annual reports issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The goals target attainment in the year 2015. Country-by-country data is also available.

This chart shows a key indicator for malnutrition—underweight children from birth to five years. In developing regions, the proportion of children under five years old who are undernourished declined from 33 per cent in 1990 to 26 per cent in 2006, but 140 million children in developing countries were recorded as underweight in 2006. According to public health experts, undernourishment among young children is a sound indicator of inadequate nutrition in the population as a whole. As the 2009 MDG report states, "Adequate nutrition is vital for building children's immune systems and for their motor and cognitive development…The consequences can be fatal: more than one third of child deaths worldwide are attributable to undernutrition." (p. 12) Eastern Asia, and China in particular, reduced the percentage of underweight children between 1990 and 2006 by more than half. In Southern Asia, despite progress since 1990, almost half of young children are underweight. In Sub-saharan Africa, there has been insufficient progress, where more than a quarter of the region's children are underweight. Urban children are half as likely to be underweight as rural children in the same country. In Eastern Asia, where improvement has occurred, inadequate nutrition is still almost five times as high in rural areas. Notable in these statistics is the progress recorded for Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern Africa, and parts of Asia. There has been no significant progress in Western Asia, a likely result of the large number of refugees and conflict.

Overall worldwide progress is already insufficient to achieve the MDG goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. In developing regions between 1990 and 2007, a 5 percentage point decline in the proportion of underweight children under five years of age was achieved, leaving over a quarter of all children in these regions underfed. Progress in reducing hunger is being slowed or reversed by rising food prices due to changing diets, economic growth, a population increases, urbanization, poor agricultural policies, and use of food crops for biofuel.