Thematic Brief: Girls’ education and child marriage

Objectives

This brief aims to explain the two-way relationship between girls’ education and child marriage, drawing on global evidence and trends. It outlines how education delays marriage and how child marriage disrupts schooling. It also seeks to identify the shared drivers behind both outcomes, such as poverty, gender inequality, harmful norms, weak education systems and crises, and highlight approaches that can keep girls in school and reduce child marriage.

Findings

The brief shows that keeping girls in school, especially through secondary education, is one of the strongest protections against child marriage. Each additional year of secondary schooling significantly lowers the likelihood of marrying before 18. At the same time, child marriage remains a major barrier to education. Once married, most girls leave school and rarely return due to household responsibilities, pregnancy, stigma, restrictive school policies and limited support systems.

Progress toward ending child marriage and improving girls’ education has been uneven. Girls from poor, rural, Indigenous, conflict-affected and crisis-affected communities remain at highest risk of dropping out and being married early. Poverty, harmful gender norms, adolescent pregnancy, school-related gender-based violence, long distances to school and lack of safe sanitation facilities continue to limit girls’ educational opportunities. Humanitarian crises, climate shocks and COVID-19 have further deepened these risks, increasing school dropout and reversing gains in gender equality.

Overall, the evidence reinforces that education and child marriage are deeply interconnected. Meaningful progress requires coordinated, multisectoral action to expand access to quality, safe, gender-transformative education and address the underlying drivers that push girls out of school and into early marriage.

Summary

The brief explains the two-way link between girls’ education and child marriage. Staying in school, especially at secondary level, sharply reduces the risk of marrying before 18, yet child marriage in turn causes many girls to leave school and rarely return. Girls from the poorest, rural, Indigenous, conflict-affected and crisis-affected communities face the greatest barriers, including poverty, harmful gender norms, school-related violence, long and unsafe journeys to school, lack of sanitation and menstrual facilities, and policies that exclude pregnant girls and young mothers.

COVID-19, climate shocks and humanitarian crises have intensified these risks, leading to rising school dropout and heightened child marriage in many settings. The brief calls for governments and partners to guarantee 12 years of free, quality, gender-transformative education; tackle poverty and violence; protect girls’ right to continue education during and after pregnancy; and ensure that crisis responses keep girls in school and safe, as a central strategy to end child marriage and advance gender equality.

Purpose

The brief aims to explain how girls’ education and child marriage influence one another, drawing on global evidence and trends. It seeks to highlight the barriers that prevent girls from staying in school and the factors that increase the risk of early marriage, especially for the most marginalised. The brief also identifies the policy and programmatic actions needed to expand access to quality education and reduce child marriage.

Audience

The brief is intended for policymakers, government ministries, donors, civil society organisations, educators and advocates working on girls’ education, gender equality, child protection and adolescent wellbeing. It also serves practitioners designing programmes to keep girls in school and prevent child marriage, as well as researchers and partners seeking evidence to guide policy and implementation.