1 in 17 Children Worldwide Is a Child Laborer: Which Industries Fuel the Crisis?

On World Day Against Child Labour (June 12), new estimates from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) paint a stark picture.

Globally, there are approximately 2.4 billion people under 18. Of them, nearly 138 million children — one in every 17 — are engaged in child labor. Notably, 54 million of these children are in hazardous work that threatens their health and safety.

Children in Hazardous Work

In 2015, the United Nations set a target to end child labor worldwide by 2025. That deadline has passed. While the overall number of child laborers has declined, two in five of these children still perform dangerous jobs — often heavy manual labor, exposure to toxic chemicals, unsafe machinery, and long hours in hazardous environments.

Among the 54 million children in hazardous work:

• 10.3 million (about one-fifth) are aged 5–11.
• 12.8 million (about one-quarter) are aged 12–14.
• 30.8 million (about four-sevenths) are aged 15–17.

UNICEF and the ILO warn that such work can cause injury, disease, and long-term harm to children’s physical and mental development. Many also miss out on education, trapping families in a cycle of poverty that persists across generations.

Which Industries Employ Child Laborers?

Agriculture remains the sector that employs the most child laborers, accounting for 61% of all child labor cases. This means about 84 million children are working in fields, fisheries, forests, and livestock farms.

Children carry heavy sacks, spray pesticides, work in mines, handle sharp tools and machinery, and labor under extreme weather. Most hazardous child labor worldwide is concentrated here.

In many rural communities, work begins before dawn and directly competes with school attendance.

Meanwhile, 27% of child laborers work in services (domestic work, retail, hospitality) and 13% in industry (mining, manufacturing, construction).

Global Situation of Child Labor

From cocoa plantations in West Africa to rice paddies in South Asia, agriculture is the biggest sector for child labor because it is often informal, family-based, and difficult to regulate.

Lucia Soleti, UNICEF’s Acting Deputy Representative in Ghana, said child labor remains widespread in West Africa because of poverty, limited access to social services, and climate and economic shocks. In Ghana, more than 1.1 million children aged 5–17 are affected, mainly in agriculture, but also in mining, fishing, and domestic work.

“It denies children education, exposes them to dangerous conditions, and perpetuates poverty across generations,” Soleti said.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the crisis, with 87 million child laborers — more than the rest of the world combined. Population growth, conflict, and economic instability have erased many of the gains made in recent years.

While Asia and the Pacific have recorded the steepest declines, child labor remains deeply embedded in global supply chains for food, clothing, minerals, and consumer goods sold worldwide.

Mona Aika, UNICEF’s Acting Chief of Child Protection in Nigeria, argued that child labor cannot be solved by training or law enforcement alone. “The slow rate of decline in sub-Saharan Africa is linked to many structural factors: poverty, limited access to quality education, weak social protection, rural livelihoods dependent on family labor, conflict, migration, climate change, population growth, the informal nature of work, and limited enforcement capacity,” Aika said.

“It demands stronger child protection systems, social protection, access to education, livelihood support for families, community prevention, referral pathways, and sustainable government-led action,” she stressed.