The Changing Childhood Project Report
UNICEF x Gallup | A multigenerational, international survey on 21st century childhood
Highlights
What is it like to be a child today? How do young people see the world differently?
In 2021, UNICEF and Gallup surveyed people around the world – both young people aged 15–24 and people over 40, seeking to answer these questions.
We found that young people are optimistic about the future and recognize the progress that has been made, including in key areas of children’s lives. Yet they are not complacent. Young people recognize both the benefits from, and the risks associated with, their increasingly digital lives. They are judicious about whom they trust and they seek action on a range of fronts, from climate change to discrimination.
The challenge now is to listen to these views on childhood and the world consider their implications – and meet young people’s clear-eyed optimism with action.
Files available for download
Related pages
Changing Childhood Project
We are living through an era of rapid and far-reaching transformation. As the world has changed — becoming more digital, more globalized, and more diverse — childhood is changing with it.
The Changing Childhood Project — a collaboration of UNICEF and Gallup — was created to explore these shifts, and to better understand what it means to be a child in the 21st century. The project seeks to answer two questions: What is it like growing up today? And how do young people see the world differently?
Interactive microsite
We encourage you to visit the Changing Childhoods Project's interactive microsite, designed especially for children and young adults to engage with the Project’s questions – including those posed in the survey – and to explore some of its key findings.