Out-of-school population among primary school children 2000-2018, by gender

Over the past two decades, the number of out-of-school girls in primary school age decreased globally from 57 million to 32 million. The share of boys admitted at primary school worldwide also saw a decline from 42 million in 2000 to 27 million in 2018. Progress in reducing the number of out-of-school children has generally stagnated since 2007, and a higher number of girls than boys are not in primary school worldwide today.

Regional perspective

In detail, nine percent of girls in primary school age are not in school worldwide, compared to seven percent of their male counterparts. In a regional perspective, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest out-of-school population in the world. 22 percent girls and 17 percent boys from this region were not in primary school in 2018. South Asia had the second highest out-of-school population that same year, with eight percent girls and six percent boys respectively.

Lower secondary school

A similar picture appears for adolescents in lower secondary age. While the number of children who were not admitted to lower secondary school generally decreased in the past years, 32 million boys and 30 million girls are still out of school to this day. Up until 10 years ago, a higher number of girls were out of school than boys, but now the tendency has shifted as fewer boys are not enrolled in lower secondary school globally. In South Asia as well as East Asia and the Pacific, a higher share of females was in lower secondary school, while in Sub-Saharan Africa more males were admitted.