Early Marriage
A traditional harmful practice – A statistical exploration
This study utilizes household survey data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to assess child marriage levels by country and provide further analysis of how child marriage correlates with additional indicators. For this analysis, data are analysed for countries with surveys conducted during 1995–2003. The surveys cover women aged 15–49. The objective of this study is to present available empirical evidence obtained through household surveys in order to estimate the prevalence of child marriage and to identify and understand the factors associated with child marriage and cohabitation. The report presents a global assessment of child marriage levels, differentials in child marriage rates according to socio-economic and demographic variables, characteristics of the union, and knowledge and access to sexual and reproductive health information and materials.