Children Affected by Armed Conflict, 1990–2023

In 2023, more than three quarters of the world’s children lived in a country experiencing conflict, with more than one in six children ­living within 50 km of an area where fighting took place. This represents a decrease from 2022; however, the number of children living in high-­intensity conflict areas remained quite stable at approximately 73 million. This yearly update – commissioned by Save the Children and generated by PRIO – reveals that the share of children at risk of conflict globally has almost doubled since the lowest estimates of 10% in the mid-1990s to almost 19% in 2023.