Street Child - Statistics and Distribution

Statistics and Distribution

Street children can be found in a large majority of the world's cities, with the phenomenon more prevalent in densely-populated urban hubs of developing or economically unstable countries, such as India, China, Russia, and countries in Africa. According to a report from the Consortium for Street Children, a United Kingdom (UK)-based consortium of related NGOs, UNICEF estimated that 100 million children were growing up on urban streets around the world. Fourteen years later, UNICEF similarly reported, "The latest estimates put the numbers of these children as high as 100 million" (UNICEF, 2002: 37). More recently the organization added, "The exact number of street children is impossible to quantify, but the figure almost certainly runs into tens of millions across the world. It is likely that the numbers are increasing" (UNICEF, 2005: 40-41). The 100 million figure is still commonly cited, but has no basis in fact (see Ennew and Milne, 1989; Hecht, 1998; Green, 1998). Similarly, it is debatable whether numbers of street children are growing globally, or whether it is the awareness of street children within societies that has grown.