Child labour fell, and still missed its 2025 deadline

SDG target 8.7 set 2025 as the year child labour would end. The count fell between 2020 and 2024, too slowly to meet it, and the offices that measure it are losing funding.

137.6million
children aged 5 to 17 in child labour, 20241
54million
of them in hazardous work1
61%
of child labour is in agriculture1
21.5%
of children in Sub-Saharan Africa are in child labour1

Ending child labour would need progress about eleven times faster1,3

Children aged 5 to 17 in child labour, by edition of the global estimates1,2

2016151.6 million 9.6%
2020160 million 9.6%
2024137.6 million 7.8%
2025 target0 missed

The count rose from 2016 to 2020 and fell by 2024. Each edition is shown as published; the 2016 and 2020 readings come from the 2020 report.

Sub-Saharan Africa holds nearly two-thirds of child labour

Children in child labour by region, 20241

Sub-Saharan Africa86.6 million 21.5%Central & Southern Asia17.0 million 3.4%Eastern & South-Eastern Asia12.3 million 3.1%Northern Africa & Western Asia12.2 million 8.3%Latin America & the Caribbean7.3 million 5.5%Europe & Northern America1.3 million 0.8%Oceania0.8 million 6.7%

The smaller figure is the share of the region’s children.

Highest shares in national surveys4

All countries
1Burundi53.5% 20202Niger42.4% 20223Uganda40.1% 20214Cameroon33.4% 20145Chad30.9% 20196Guinea-Bissau30.4% 20227Nigeria28.1% 20228Vanuatu26.7% 20239Tonga25.9% 201910Togo25.7% 2022

The smaller figure is the year of the survey.

Children in child labour work on farms far more than adults do

Share of work by sector, children in child labour against working adults1

Children in child labourWorking adults
Agriculture
61% of children
28% of adults
Services
27% of children
50% of adults
Industry, mining included
13% of children
25% of adults

Most of it is family and smallholder farming. In Sub-Saharan Africa about 70% of child labour is agricultural; in every other region agriculture is under half.

Minerals are the sharp end of the goods list

Goods listed for child labour in the most countries5

Gold26 countries
Bricks18 countries
Sugarcane18 countries
Tobacco17 countries
Coffee17 countries
Cotton15 countries
Cattle15 countries
Rice13 countries

Critical minerals flagged on the 2024 list6

AluminiumCobaltCopperIndiumLithiumManganeseNickelSiliconTantalumTinTungstenZinc

The 2024 list is the largest yet, with 72 additions, among them cobalt ore from the DRC for forced labour.

Children in mining1,7

WorldwideOver a million children in artisanal and small-scale mining
Haut-Katanga and LualabaMore than 6,200 children identified in mines in 2024
Rubaya, DRCChildren digging coltan tunnels under M23 taxation

The pressure on buyers has moved from US courts to European law

DateWhat happenedWhere it stands
5 March 2024The DC Circuit upholds the dismissal of Doe v. Apple: buying cobalt through a global supply chain is not “participation in a venture” under the US trafficking statute.8Closed
December 2027The EU regulation prohibiting products made with forced labour on the EU market applies.9Adopted, not yet applying

The publishers behind these numbers are running late or losing funding

PublicationPublisherWhere it stands
Trafficking in Persons Report 2026US Department of State100 days late. Released 8 October 2026; the 2025 edition was also about three months late, after deep staff cuts.11,12
Child labour findings and goods list, 2026US Department of Labor (ILAB)At risk. About US$500m of the bureau’s grants were cancelled in 2025.10
Delta 8.7UNU-CPRProject completed.13

Where child labour meets mining, hub by hub

Sources

  1. ILO & UNICEF, Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward, 2024 (published 2025-06-11); accessed 2026-07-02. Headline figures, the SDG-region rows of the statistical annex, and the sectoral composition (pp. 32–34; hazardous shares are the report’s approximations).
  2. ILO & UNICEF, Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward, 2020 (published June 2021); accessed 2026-07-03. The 2016 and 2020 readings. Each edition is shown as published.
  3. UNICEF, Despite progress, child labour still affects 138 million children globally. Press release with the ILO, on the 2024 estimates.
  4. UNICEF / ILO via Our World in Data, Share of children aged 5-17 years engaged in labour, 2026-07-31; accessed 2026-10-15. Each country’s latest national survey. Retrieval route
  5. US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (TVPRA List), 2024, published 2024-09-05; accessed 2026-07-02. Counts are goods listed for child labour (CL or CL+FL). Retrieval route
  6. US Department of Labor, 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, published 2024-09-05.
  7. UN Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Final report, S/2025/446.
  8. US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, Doe v. Apple Inc., No. 21-7135, published 2024-03-05.
  9. European Union, Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 prohibiting products made with forced labour.
  10. Child Labor Coalition, Civil society groups alarmed by cuts to ILAB grants to address forced labor and child labor, published 2025-04-22; accessed 2026-10-15.
  11. US Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, 2026, published 2026-10-08; accessed 2026-10-15. Released 8 October 2026; statutory deadline 30 June 2026. Retrieval route
  12. Federal Register, Request for information for the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, published 2026-01-14.
  13. UNU-CPR, Delta 8.7 project (completed).