Since 2015, the female school population in the world has increased by 50 million and the rate of completion of school by girls has improved. However, the number of those who have never been to school or who have interrupted it due to wars, natural disasters, forced marriages, remains very high: 122 million in the world.
In the world, a fifth of girls between 15 and 29 years old (equal to 20.1%) do not study, do not work and do not follow training courses (NEET), among males the percentage drops to 11.8 percent.
Many girls are also forced into early marriages: in fact, there are about 640 million girls between the ages of 20 and 24 who married when they were minors. Between 2020 and 2022 globally, the percentage of girls forced to marry before the age of 18 has however decreased.
The pandemic and climate change have contributed to making girls even more vulnerable, aggravating risk factors such as poverty, school dropout, lack of food, loss of family income.
Salesian missionaries living and working in more than 130 countries around the world focus on achieving gender equality through educational programs specifically aimed at girls.
