The facts

Global statistics paint a bleak picture of the challenges girls face, growing up in the poorest parts of the world:

• Girls have the same rights as their brothers, yet they are discriminated against even before they are born
• Sixty-two million girls are not in primary school
• Over 900 million girls and women are living on less than a dollar a day
• About 450 million women suffer from stunted growth as a result of being poorly fed in childhood
• Teenage girls account for nearly half of victims of sexual assault worldwide.*
• 68,000 teenage girls die from unsafe abortions every year
• About 140 million girls have undergone female genital cutting and two million are subjected to it every year.
• More than 100 million girls under 18, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over the next decade.
• 62% more young women are living with HIV/AIDS than men
• Two thirds of teenagers newly infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa are female*

* teenagers between 15-19 years of age.

To help change this, sign up to our campaign online or by texting GIRLS to 84118.

Select a stage in a girls life to find out more about the problems they may face.

For more information about the state of the world's girls, or to download Plan's Because I Am A Girl report, visit our Issues page.