At Teen Voices, we empower teen girls, helping them create social change through media and providing an arena for them to share their stories. But many of the world’s 574.7 million teen girls are unheard – and are dealing with grueling challenges and extreme inequalities. Girls Discovered uses data from various sources, including UNICEF, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, to show the prevalence of issues according to country. Among the statistics:
- In Niger, nearly 80 percent of young women aged 20-24 have no formal education; by comparison 64 percent of young men have no formal education.
- In Mali, only 22.5 percent of girls aged 15-24 are literate, while 36.1 percent of boys are literate.
- In Somalia, 98 percent of women and adolescent girls aged 15-49 have undergone genital cutting or other mutilation. In Bangladesh, more than a third of young women currently aged 20-24 had their first child before they were 15; in Niger, 27.7 percent of young women aged 20-24 had their first child before they were 15.
- In Ethiopia, there is a 1.5 percent chance that a woman who is giving birth will have skilled personnel attend her labor. In the United Kingdom, there is a one percent chance that a woman will not have a skilled attendant overseeing her labor.
- In Swaziland, 22.6 percent of girls and women aged 15-24 are HIV-positive, the world’s highest percentage among young women. Lesotho has the highest global prevalence of HIV among young men aged 15-24 years – at 5.9 percent.
Girls Discovered puts extensive data on girls and women in one place and allows visitors to compare data sets. Want to know how literacy rates correspond with the prevalence of FGM? You can map that data:
Visit Girls Discovered to create your own maps and learn more about the issues facing teen girls worldwide.