Global Childhood Report 2019: Changing lives in our lifetime

In commemoration of its founding 100 years ago, Save the Children releases its third annual Global Childhood Report to celebrate progress for children. Children born today have a better chance than at any time in history to grow up healthy, educated and protected, with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Even a generation ago, a child was twice as likely to die before reaching age 5, 70 percent more likely to be involved in child labor and 20 percent more likely to be murdered.

This year’s report examines the major reasons why childhood comes to an early end, and finds significantly fewer children suffering ill-health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labor, child marriage, early pregnancy and violent death. In the year 2000, an estimated 970 million children were robbed of their childhoods due to these causes. That number today has been reduced to 690 million – meaning at least 280 million children are better off today than they would have been two decades ago.