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.

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.