Global Orphans: The Numbers
There’s a broad range of seemingly contradictory numbers floating around the Internet regarding the estimated number of orphans in the world. So we figured it’d be best to go source. The following clarification comes thanks to help from a gracious friend of a friend at the U.N.
- The official 2008 estimate from UNICEF (based on 2007 data) is 145 million orphans in the world. For this number, an orphan is defined as a child who has lost one or both parents.
- For the “developing world” the total estimated number of orphans is 130 million. This includes statistics for Sub Saharan Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Since most people think of an orphan as a child who has lost both parents, these numbers can seem a bit misleading.
- Included in the 2008 estimate of 145 million orphans are more than 92 million that have a surviving mother—-with whom they most likely live.
- Another 38 million have a surviving father.
Doing the math, of the 145 million estimated orphans worldwide, approximately 15 million are “double” orphans—growing up without either mother or father. That’s about ten percent of the whole.
Posts 
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
This familiar verse in James brings that 92 million into better focus, especially since most of them are in developing areas so they are suffering.
Plus, 32 million double orphans is still a big number.
For the 92 million orphans with a surviving mother, are these only where the father was killed? Or, does this include single mothers by divorce, abandonment, and by choice (unmarried)?
Ah. Thank you, I have wondered about those big numbers. My husband and I are working very, very hard to make that number three less.:)
Robert,
Thank you for your question! The 92 million children classified as orphans who have a mother but no father is meant to include only situations in which the father is deceased, not merely absent. Because the data is drawn primarily from household surveys, it is possible that in some cases the father is reported as dead when he’s actually only absent for other reasons. The U.N. reports with a high degree of confidence, however, that the vast majority of these children have no living father.
[...] Jedd Medefind recently posted the updated UNICEF estimates and breakdown: [...]
I don’t understand why 92 million with a surviving mother, with whom they most likely live, are considered “orphans”. This seems misleading. Can you explain this?
Linda,
I agree with you–the 145 million orphans statistic can appear misleading when we learn that only about 10% have lost both parents. Dictionary definition of “orphan” reads, “A child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent.” So, it is not necessarily inaccurate to use the broader definition and include in your statistics children who’ve lost only one parent. But since most people assume “orphan” refers to a child who has neither mother nor father, I believe it’s best for advocates either to clarify what we mean by “orphan” if we use the 145 million figure, or simply to stick with a more traditional definition of “orphan”–which would put the number at about 15 million.
Great discussion, guys.
I have posted my response/thoughts at:
http://abandoned-orphaned.typepad.com/paulmyhill/2009/08/the-count.html
Until They All Have Homes,
Paul Myhill
President – World Orphans
[...] up the number of orphans worldwide so that we can most effectively reach them and care for them. Jedd Medefind recently posted the updated UNICEF estimates and [...]