Countries with the highest share of married girls 2021

Niger has the highest child marriage rate in the world. According to recent data, in this West African country 75 percent of girls aged under 18 were married, with 36 percent of them being younger than 15 years old. Chad, Bangladesh, and Guinea had rates ranging from 63 percent to 68 percent. This issue is globally spread, particularly in African countries. In many of these countries, the legal age to get married is lower for females than for males. In Niger and Chad, for instance, the legal age is 15 years for females and 18 for males. In Guinea, instead, the legal age for marriage is 17 for females and 18 for males. However, child marriage rates are considerably high.