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Maps

Map 1: Child and adolescent populations

For a higher resolution, zoomable version of this map, please see the PDF file.
Maps were revised after publication of The State of the World's Children 2000.

Where the children are Under-18-year-olds as a proportion of total population 50% and over 25%-49% Under 25% Adolescents 12- to 17-year-olds are more than one third of the under-18 population Source: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 1998 Revision	Declining shares Under-18s as percentage of total population 2010 (projected) compared with 1970 Source: UN Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 1998 Revision	The population clock Births in 1999 Source: UN Population Dvision, World Population Prospects: The 1998 Revision
	Despite an overall decline in the proportion of children under 18, the current generation of young people is the largest in the history of the world. Children remain a high proportion of the total population in those countries where life expectancy is low. There are over 1 billion adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 - more than one-fifth of the world's population. About 85 per cent of adolescents live in developing countries. The relatively high proportion of 12- to 17-year olds in many industrialized countries may be associated with low under-five mortality rates and a trend towards smaller families.		This map does not reflect a position by UNICEF on the legal status of any country or territory or the delimitation of any frontiers. Dotted line represents approximately the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir agreed upon by India and Pakistan. The final status of Jammu and Kashmir has not yet been agreed upon by the parties.

General Notes:

Map 1. Child and adolescent populations: The child and adolescent populations map focuses on demographic indicators that demonstrate the declining proportion of children and adolescents in the aggregate global population. These indicators are the child-specific pieces of a global demographic shift. The shift is the result of a global decline in birth and death rates with a corresponding increase in life expectancy at birth. As the map demonstrates, the demographic reversal is most visible in northern industrialized countries and is less pronounced in developing countries. While the deceleration has occurred in all regions of the world, it began earlier and has been more pronounced in industrially developed countries. This has exacerbated the existing differences in population and has helped to create the difference in under-19 populations between the more developed and less developed regions.

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