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Child labour worldwide
Millions of children today do not attend school but instead perform work that jeopardises their health, their education or, quite simply, their childhood. Child labour therefore remains one of the most pressing problems worldwide, even though there have been some positive changes in recent years. Children in almost every region of the world are affected, although the extent of the problem varies greatly depending on a country’s economic situation and political stability. The following section looks at the latest figures, the most common causes and a closer look at the situation in the Philippines.
How many children are affected by child labour today?
According to joint estimates by the International Labour Organisation and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in 2024 nearly 138 million children aged between 5 and 17 were affected by child labour worldwide. This corresponds to around 7.8 per cent of all children in this age group. Of particular concern is the fact that around 54 million of these children are engaged in hazardous work that poses an acute threat to their health, safety or development. Of the children affected, the youngest age group – those aged between 5 and 11 – accounts for over 57 per cent, highlighting just how early many children are drawn into working conditions.
Decline since 2000
Despite this high figure, the long-term trend shows clear progress. In 2000, around 246 million children were still affected – almost twice as many as today. Between 2020 and 2024, the figure fell by more than 22 million, after having actually risen temporarily between 2016 and 2020. Although this falls well short of the United Nations’ original target of completely ending child labour by 2025, the overall trend is positive. The Asia-Pacific region in particular has made great progress in recent years, with the number of children affected falling from around 49 million to approximately 28 million between 2020 and 2024. Children continue to work most heavily in the agricultural sector: around 60 per cent of all affected children are employed in agriculture, for example in fields, on plantations or in the fishing industry.
In which sectors do children work most frequently?
As well as in agriculture, children are often found working in mines, quarries, textile factories or as domestic workers in other people’s homes. Work in private households, in particular, often remains hidden from view, as it takes place behind closed doors and is more difficult to monitor than, for example, factory work. Children are also frequently found in small-scale mining worldwide – for example, in the search for gold or other raw materials – even though this activity is one of the most dangerous forms of child labour of all.
Causes of child labour
Behind the bare figures lie, in most cases, similar structural causes:
- Poverty amongst families who rely on their children’s additional income
- Lack of, or limited access to, free and high-quality education
- Armed conflicts and natural disasters that plunge families into crisis
- A lack of social security systems that could provide a safety net for families in times of crisis
These factors often reinforce one another: children who are forced to work at an early age miss out on schooling, which reduces their own chances of earning a stable income in adulthood and perpetuates the cycle across generations. Regions affected by armed conflict also have, on average, a significantly higher incidence of child labour than the global average, as social structures and education systems in such crisis-hit areas are often severely disrupted.
Child labour in the Philippines
Child labour also remains a real problem in the Philippines, although there have been positive developments in recent years. According to figures from the Philippine Department of Labour, the number of working children fell by around 38.5 per cent between 2022 and 2024, which equates to approximately 319,000 children no longer having to work. Anyone wondering how widespread child labour still is in the Philippines will find that, according to more recent provisional figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority for 2025, around 3.1 per cent of all children aged between 5 and 17 are engaged in economic activity.
The causes and forms of child labour in the Philippines include, amongst others:
- Work on sugar cane and tea plantations during the harvest season
- Sorting waste at rubbish tips, often in conditions that are harmful to health
- Domestic work in other people’s homes, predominantly carried out by girls
- Small-scale mining, such as panning for gold in rivers and marshes
Measures to combat child labour in the Philippines
The Philippine government has launched various programmes to provide financial support to families living in extreme poverty and to remove children from working conditions, for example as part of the ‘Shield Against Child Labour’ initiative. These programmes specifically address the structural causes by improving access to education and social protection, rather than merely tackling the symptoms. Government measures are often supplemented by stricter checks by labour inspectors and the police, as well as by more consistent enforcement of existing child labour bans. Schools and local communities also play an important role, for example by identifying vulnerable families at an early stage and referring them to appropriate support programmes before children end up in employment in the first place. However, there is still a long way to go before child labour in the Philippines and worldwide is a thing of the past, even if the latest figures do at least give cause for cautious optimism.