Children Affected by Armed Conflict, 1990–2016

This policy brief represents the first attempt to map the number of children living in conflict settings around the world. More than half of the world’s children live in a conflict-ridden country, and more worryingly, one in six children lives very close to a conflict zone – that is, less than 50 km from where the actual fighting takes place. However, we lack sufficient data to tell us much about how these children are impacted by conflict. More resources should be invested in collecting and managing systematic data on the various ways in which these children are directly affected by armed conflict, such as through killing and maiming, child soldier recruitment, and sexual exploitation.