May 2026, Africa: Publication of Africa’s Children Statistical Compendium 2026

UNICEF’s Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) recently released Africa’s Children 2026: Statistical Compendium. African Overview: The future of childhood in a changing world. This compendium presents a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the status of children across Africa, delivering vital insights to support evidence-based decision-making, resource allocation, and advocacy. It features timely, actionable data on key indicators disaggregated by Regional Economic Commissions. Of particular relevance to the right to identity, including children’s family relations, this publication offers a statistical overview of child protection, e.g. birth registration rates among children under the age of one and under the age of five, the practice of child marriage, the prevalence of child labour and the percentage of children in residential care, as well as of child migration across the continent. These are all very useful data on which to build actions and reflect the situation of children in Africa in a wide range of areas.

Child Identity Protection (CHIP) welcomes this comprehensive and updated resource as well as the inclusion of a number of identity-related issues, which remain key indicators of children’s wellbeing and protection in this region.

See: UNICEF’s Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Africa’s Children 2026: Statistical Compendium. African Overview: The future of childhood in a changing world, 2026, https://data.unicef.org/resources/afcsc-2026/?utm_campaign=Africa%27s%20Children%20Statistical%20Compendium%20%28AfCSC%29%202026.&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mailjet.