According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, nearly 138 million children aged 5 to 17 worldwide are currently engaged in economic work. These figures do not take into account domestic tasks performed by children within their families. In the latest issue of Population & Societies, Andrea Verhulst-Georgoulis and Estelle Laurière (INED), together with Fengqing Chao (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), show that when domestic work is included using the same criteria as economic work, the number of children triples. This redefinition reveals the true extent of child labour and highlights the specific burden placed on girls.
Uneven progress over the world’s regions
According to the latest joint report by the ILO and UNICEF, 137.6 million children aged 5 to 17 performed economic work worldwide in 2024. This represents 7.8% of children in this age group. Of these, 55.5% were boys. Since 2008, the number of working children has fallen sharply (from 215 million), as has the proportion of children exposed to hazardous work, which has fallen from 7.3% to 3.1%. However, this decline is still insufficient to meet the eradication target set by the United Nations in its Sustainable Development Goals. The situation remains unbalanced when regions are compared: in 2024, Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for 87 million working children, a number that has been rising since 2012 due to population growth, though the proportion of affected children is falling. In Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the decline is more pronounced. In Europe, according to the ILO estimation, 3.6 million children were affected in 2020, mainly in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.
Domestic work, a blind spot in international statistics
International estimates are based mainly on ‘economic work’, i.e., the production of goods or services for the market. They exclude most domestic tasks carried out within a child’s household: collecting water or wood, cleaning, preparing meals, caring for children or elderly people. However, in the 90 countries studied, participation in household chores concerned a significantly higher proportion of children than economic work among 5- to 14-year-olds. In Chad, for example, 41% of girls aged 5 to 14 participate in economic activity and 82% perform household chores. Domestic work thus appears to be a central component of children’s daily lives, yet it is largely absent from international statistics. These household chores are more often done by girls, who may spend more than twice as much time on them as boys. The participation of children and the number of hours per week devoted to these tasks vary greatly from country to country.
Including domestic work triples the estimated number of working children
In its Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations includes children aged 5 to 14 who spend more than 21 hours per week on household chores. With this high threshold—which could include, for example, a child who spends 20 hours a week on housework or looking after their siblings—the proportion of children considered to be ‘working’ increases only moderately. If the same weekly hour thresholds were applied to household chores as to economic work (i.e., a minimum of 1 hour for 5–11 year olds, 14 hours for 12–14 year olds, and 43 hours for 15–17 year olds) the number of working children aged 5 to 17 would triple. Girls would make up majority of the children concerned.
CLD–INED: AN ORIGINAL DATABASE TO EXPLORE CHILD LABOUR IN ALL ITS FORMS
Developed at INED, the CLD–INED database is a regularly updated tool for the in-depth analysis of child labour in the world. It includes data from 208 studies conducted in 90 countries between 2000 and 2023, largely UNICEF’s international MICS surveys, the variables of which have been harmonized. The database can be used to produce and document indicators according to various definitions of child labour. The results are broken down by type of work (economic or non-economic work), age, gender, type of activity, and number of hours worked, at different geographical scales. By providing transparent and comparative access to this data, CLD–INED offers researchers, international organisations, and public decision-makers a unique tool for monitoring developments in this area and assessing the impact of the policies implemented.
The site can be accessed at: https://child-labour.site.ined.fr/fr
Better definitions for better protection
The definition of ‘child labour’ determines who is counted, recognized, and protected under law. By leaving out a large proportion of domestic work, current indicators underestimate the true burden of work on children, especially girls. In proposing broader, internationally comparable measures, the authors suggest that thresholds for reasonable family participation be reconsidered. The information their work provides will be essential to adjusting public policy, protecting children from exploitation, and moving towards the United Nations’ goal of eradicating child labour.
KEY FIGURES
- 137.6 million children aged 5 to 17 were in child labour in 2024 (7.8%), not counting domestic work
- 79 million children aged 5 to 11 were subject to child labor (8.2%)
- 87 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa were subject to child labour
- 3.1% of children aged 5 to 17 engaged in hazardous work
- 3.6 million children were in child labour in Europe in 2020
- The number of children subject to child labour triples when one applies the same hourly thresholds to domestic work as to economic work
