There are 1.8 billion young people (10-24 years old) in the world and the majority live in developing countries. They are the largest generation of youth in history. Approximately half of them – 880 million –are adolescent girls and young women.

HIGHLIGHTS

• There are 1.8 billion young people (10-24 years old) in the world. Approximately half of them – 880 million – are adolescent girls and young women.

• Trends show that one in three girls in developing countries (excluding China) are likely to be married before the age of 18 and one in nine girls will marry before their fifteenth birthdayii. In 2010, over 67 million

women aged 20-24 had been married as girls. If such trends continue, 142 million girls will be married every year in the next decade.

• Globally, young women aged 15–24 are most vulnerable to HIV, with infection rates twice as high as in young men, at 0.6%. This disparity is most pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa, where 3.1% of young women are living with HIV, versus 1.3% of young men. Each minute one young woman acquires HIV, accounting for 22% of all new HIV infections, with sexual transmission being the dominant mode of infection.

• Figures on the magnitude of human trafficking are difficult to calculate, but using improved methodology, recent 2012 ILO estimates suggest that women and girls make up 55 per cent of the estimated 20.9 million people trafficked.

• Approximately 140 million girls and women in the world have suffered female genital mutilation/cutting, with more than 3 million girls in Africa annually at risk of the practice.