Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age.
Each year, 12 million girls are married before the age of 18.
That is 23 girls every minute.
Nearly 1 every 2 seconds.
Globally, the rates of child marriage are slowly declining but progress isn't happening fast enough.
More than 650 million women, and over 150 million men, already suffer the consequences of child marriage.
If current trends on child marriage continue, 150 million more girls will be married in childhood by 2030, with devastating consequences for the whole world.
Target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals aims to end child marriage by 2030.
The African Union and the South Asia Initiative to End Violence against Children have launched initiatives to end child marriage and support married girls.
Countries are developing national action plans to end child marriage, in partnership with civil society, UN agencies and girls themselves.