About the Orphan Crisis
- A conservative estimate of orphans in the world is 143 million.* Some organizations place it currently as high as 153 million or more.
- There are more than 87 million orphans in Asia, double sub-Saharan Africa’s more than 43 million.*
- The proportion of children who are orphans generally increases with age with just over half of orphans above the age of 12. However, 12% of orphaned children 0-18 years of age are under 5. These are the most vulnerable children.*
- There are three countries in Asia where 10% or more of their children are orphans: Afghanistan 12%, Lao People’s Democratic Republic 10%, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) 10%.*
- More current Orphan statistics and information can be found through a simple search on Google or the search engine of your choice. We purposely used older statistics so as not to embellish the orphan crisis. At the same time, these statistics have largely not improved. Millions of children become orphans each year. There is much to be done!
*Source for above information: http://www.unicef.org/turkey/ir/ah17.html