Children in Montenegro
Data from the 2011 Census
Highlights
The Government of Montenegro, MONSTAT and UNICEF share a commitment to improving knowledge and understanding of the situation of children in Montenegro and ensuring that knowledge is used to develop national action to ensure better outcomes for all of our children. The “Children in Montenegro” booklet contributes to strengthening knowledge on children by consolidating key data on the situation of children obtained by 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings. We are confident that the key decision makers at national and local level will find in this book useful information about the problems that our children are coping with, which will help them identify the most effective solutions. According to the 2011 Census, in Montenegro, 5% of children aged from 6 to 17 years, i.e. 5,313 of them do not attend school. 443 children aged from 15 to 17 years are labour active while 187 of them are employed. 310 children aged from 15 to 17 years are married, and 69% of them are girls. These and other data from the publication “Children in Montenegro” clearly show that childhood experience in our country is diverse. We are pleased to see that for most children it is a period of play, learning, socialising in school and growing up in a warm family environment. However, we are concerned that for some, childhood is broken by not going to school or facing challenges of the adults’ world prematurely and unprepared such as early marriage and taking care of children, employment and so on. Every society is responsible for enabling every child to develop to his or her full potential. Our intention is, through this publication, to stimulate public dialogue based on statistically reliable data needed for the development of effective policies. Our goal is to contribute to the changes that will enable every child in Montenegro to develop to his or her full potential. As society and as individuals we owe that to our children.
