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This page presents several graphics analyzing the data generated from HerAtlas, UNESCO’s interactive tool monitoring girls and women’s right to education worldwide. The graphics are updated regularly to reflect the latest data from the tool. 

Unless specified otherwise, data source is HerAtlas.

According to our monitoring tool, worldwide, 2% of countries restrict the right to education of married, pregnant and parenting girls and women in their legal framework. These countries are located in three different regions. The restrictions could either prohibit them from attending school or sitting an exam, limiting them to attend adult or evening classes, or separating them from their peers and isolating them for fear that they would ‘influence’ other students.

Data demonstrates that secondary school-aged girls are substantially more likely to be out of school when the legal right to education of pregnant and parenting girls is restricted, especially at the upper secondary level. It also follows the general trend, as there are more adolescent out-of-school at the upper secondary level.

63% of countries do not have a legislation that explicitly protect girls’ right to education in case of pregnancy but 33% do have such provisions, which are sometimes very detailed and protective. Europe and North America is the region with the most countries that protect explicitly their right to education, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and then Africa. 

While in 2019, 8 countries were restricting the right to education of pregnant, parenting and married girls in their legislation, four countries in the African region have put an end to such ban, therefore leaving only four countries with an explicit ban. 

The following graphics represent the data of the indicator of HerAtlas on pregnant and parenting girls’ right to education. According to the methodology of HerAtlas, the legislation is considered as explicitly protecting the right to education of pregnant and parenting girls only if there is a provision mentioning expressly pregnancy, parenting and education. Guaranteeing the right to education without discrimination is not considered as an explicit protection for this indicator. 

According to the , child marriage, also referred to as early marriage, is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age.

Worldwide, 18% of countries still allow marriage before the age 18 years old for girls. 57% allow it from 18 years old, but with exceptions before that age. In such cases, exceptions can for example require a parental or a judicial consent and an absolute minimum age is not always set. 22% of countries do set a minimum age of marriage at 18 for girls without exceptions.* 

At the regional level, Latin America and the Caribbean has the fewest countries that permit marriage before the age of 18 without exceptions.

Globally, the percentage of child marriage is higher in countries where education is neither compulsory nor free. The percentage of women aged 20 to 24 who were first married or in union before their 18 is almost halved in countries where education is compulsory for nine years or more and fee for 12 years or more in comparison to countries where education is neither compulsory nor free. 

Regarding legal protection against gender-based violence and corporal punishment within education establishments, 16% of countries provide for a wide protection (protecting from corporal punishment and physical, psychological and sexual violence), 52% with a partial protection, 18% do not provide protection and 12% authorize the use of corporal punishment in schools. At the regional level, Latin America and the Caribbean is the region with the most countries providing a wide protection, but also with the most countries that allow for corporal punishment in school.

* Compared to the previous version of the article in 2023, the data on legislation concerning child marriage has changed due to a revised methodology that now aligns with the Joint CEDAW-CRC General Recommendation/Comment as of 2019.

Worldwide, 16% of countries still do not guarantee the right to education in their Constitution or laws. Among the 84% of countries that legally protect the right to education, 57% explicitly guarantee it without discrimination based on sex and/or gender. 

At the regional level, it is in Asia Pacific that the highest percentage of countries not guaranteeing the right to education can be found, while it is in the Arab region that there is the highest percentage of countries legally protecting the right to education without discrimination. Finally, Latin America and Caribbean region has the highest percentage of countries explicitly guaranteeing the right to education without discrimination based on sex and/or gender. 

Regarding compulsory and free pre-primary education, worldwide, 28% of countries guarantee it in their legislation while 19% legally guarantee free or compulsory pre-primary education. At the regional level, it is in the Latin America and Caribbean region that there is the highest percentage of countries legally guaranteeing compulsory and free pre-primary education, followed by the Europe and North America region. 

At the global level, 31% of countries legally guarantee compulsory primary and secondary education for at least nine years and free education for at least 12 years, while 5% of countries do not guarantee neither compulsory nor free primary and secondary education. The others either guarantee compulsory or free primary and secondary education, or they do guarantee both, but the duration of compulsory education is less than nine years, or the duration of free education is less than 12 years. At the regional level, it is in the Europe and North American region that there is the highest percentage of countries legally guaranteeing compulsory and free primary and secondary education, for a duration of respectively at least nine and 12 years. 

When pre-primary education is neither legally compulsory nor free, the out-of-school rate of girls of primary school age is higher than the out-of-school rate of boys of the same age. For both boys and girls, the out-of-school rate of children of primary school age is lower when pre-primary education is legally compulsory and/or free. 

Similarly, the out-of-school rate for children, adolescents and youth of primary, lower secondary and upper secondary school age is divided by three when primary and secondary education is compulsory for at least nine years and free for at least twelve years, compared to the out-of-school rate when education is neither compulsory nor free. While the out-of-school rate of girls is higher than the one of boys when education is neither compulsory nor free, the out-of-school rate of boys is higher than the out-of-school rate of girls when education is compulsory for at least 9 years and free for at least 12 years. 

Finally, the gross enrolment ratio (GER) for tertiary education is multiplied by four when primary and secondary education is compulsory for nine years and free for 12 years, compared to the tertiary education GER when primary and secondary education is neither compulsory nor free. The GER of boys in tertiary education is lower than the GER of girls regardless of the number of years of compulsory and free primary and secondary education.

Generally, as the HerAtlas global score (total number of maximum scores achieved per country) increases, the out-of-school rate decreases, indicating that countries with better educational laws  have lower rates of children not attending school. However, some countries with higher scores still exhibit significant out-of-school rates, clearly showing that many other factors contribute to educational access. Overall, comprehensive strategies are important in order to achieve educational equity.

HerAtlas data reveals a noticeable increase in countries achieving higher scores, indicating improvement in educational legislations. The current results show a shift toward more countries reaching the middle range of scores compared to 2019. This suggests positive progress, although a significant number of countries still have lower scores, highlighting the necessity to continue improving legislation.

This is further represented in the pie chart which presents the percentage of countries based on the total number of maximum scores achieved. Each segment represents the distribution of countries across different scoring brackets, with a notable concentration around lower to mid-range scores. This shows that while some countries have achieved high scores, a larger portion remains in the lower tier.