THE NEW GLOBAL YOUTH DIVIDE

Unequal education is only one aspect of the extreme inequality young Africans face today.

There is such a growing difference between the lives of young people in Africa and the rest of the world that a Global Youth Divide has emerged.

In the first decade of this century things were improving slowly, not only did the number of African children out of school decrease but the number of malnourished young Africans also fell. [1]

Since 2010 however there has been a huge increase in African youth inequality:

37 million more African children are out of school (whilst in the rest of the world the number fell by 47 million) [2]

27 million more African children are child labourers (whilst in the rest of the world the number fell by 58 million) [3]

131 Million more Africans are malnourished, most of whom are young Africans (in the rest of the world the number of malnourished people fell) [4]

143 Million more Africans are living in extreme poverty, defined as less than $3 a day, since 2010 most of whom are young Africans (whilst in the rest of the world the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by over 800 million) [5]

The graph of the number of Africans who are malnourished shows how the reversal in progress far outweighs the modest improvement in the first decade of the 21st century.

Most of them are young Africans.

Child Labour

The simplest way to see the new global youth divide is to compare where in world child labourers live.

As the graph shows under 20% of the world’s child labourers were from sub-Saharan Africa in 2000 it is now 63%. [6]

It is a huge change in just 16 years. A very real and much more extreme youth divide has emerged between young Africans and young people in the rest of the world.

The data for Africa as a whole (not just sub-Saharan Africa) was not published in 2008, but it was for 2024 and shows 69% of the world’s child labourers are African children. [7]

For how many years will the global economy be built on the backs of African children?

The latest data released by the ILO in June 2025, shows that since the start of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, the world has on average created 50,000 more child labourers in Africa and 2 billionaires outside of Africa every week [8].

The two are not unconnected.

Wider inequality

The changes in child labour also reflect the change in wider inequality between people.

There has been a real and generational shift in where the world’s most marginalised people live (most of whom are young people) [9].

Less than 1 in 5 (19%) of the world’s poorest people lived in sub-Saharan Africa in 2000, it is now over 2 in 3 (73%). [10]

These are not just points on a graph but millions of real young African men and women who are losing their education, their childhood, their health and even their lives.

The size of the injustice is so large it is hard to comprehend.

The number of African children dying every year from poverty is twice as high as the total of all the US military deaths in war since the US was founded in 1776. [11]

Yet global wealth is increasing, global GDP has nearly doubled this century.

Even after inflation is removed global wealth has increased by over $28 trillion since 2010 whilst over 40 million African children have died due to extreme poverty in the same time. [12]

How rich does the world have to be before young people in Africa can realise their rights?

Gandhi famously said that the ‘world has enough for everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed’ [13] that has never been truer than today.

The current generation is the richest there has ever been, global wealth has never been higher [14], yet the world has such a staggering indifference to the lives of young people in Africa that it doesn’t hear what they have to say or care if they die as a consequence of international policies.

Even young people in other continents are unaware of the new global youth divide between young people in Africa and the rest of the world.

Very few students understand the dramatic increases in education inequality that are happening to their generation let alone the government inequality and international injustices driving it.

Sources

1. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO STAT ‘Number of people undernourished (million) (annual value)’ – Get data here – for Africa gives 187,600,000 for 2000 and 167,400,000 for 2010 a fall of 20,200,000 & UNESCO UIS ‘Out of School Estimates’ (Accessed June 2025) – Get data here – for Africa (sub-Saharan Africa plus North Africa) gives 107,230,000 for 2000 and gives 96,000,000 a fall of 11,230,000

2. UNESCO UIS ‘Out of School Estimates’ (Accessed June 2025) – Get data here – for Africa (sub-Saharan Africa plus North Africa) gives 96,000,000 for 2010 and gives 119,250,000 for 2024, an increase of 23,250,000. For the Rest of the World (World minus Africa) gives 186,800,000 for 2010 and 153,650,000 for 2024, a fall of 33,150,000.

3. International Labour Organization ‘Global child labour trends 2008 to 2012’ (2013) – Read more here – gives 59,031,000 for Sub-Saharan Africa for 2012 and for the Rest of the World (World minus sub Saharan Africa) gives 108,925,000 for 2012 & International Labour Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward’, (ILO and UNICEF, New York, 2025. License: CC BY 4.0) – Read more here – for sub-Saharan Africa gives 86,616,000 for 2024 an increase of 27,585,000 since 2012 (data from 2010 is not available) and for the Rest of the World (World minus sub Saharan Africa) gives 50,946,000 for 2024 a fall of 57,979,000 since 2012 (data from 2010 is not available).

4. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO STAT ‘Number of people undernourished (million) (annual value)’ – Get data here – for Africa gives 167,400,000 for 2010 and 298,400,000 for 2023 (Latest Year) for a rise of 131,000,000. For the Rest of the World (World minus Africa) gives 437,400,000 for 2010 and 435,000,000 for 2023, for a fall of 2,400,000.

5. World Bank, ‘Poverty Indicator Platform’ – Get data here – gives for sub-Saharan Africa gives 443,775,576 for 2010 and 587,171,302 for 2025 for a rise of 143,395,726 & Rest of the World (World minus sub-Saharan Africa) gives 1,025,807,074 for 2010 and 221,034,837 for 2025 for a fall of -804,772,237 & World Bank ‘Global Estimate of Children in Monetary Poverty: An Update’ – Read more here – shows in Annexe Table 2 that a majority of those living on less than $1.90 a day, a previous international poverty line, were children.

6. & 7. ILO ‘Global child labour trends 2008 to 2012’ (2013) – Read more here – gives 65,064,000 for Sub-Saharan Africa for 2008 and for the World gives 215,269,000 for 2008 for a share of 30.2% for sub-Saharan Africa (no data is available for 2008 for Africa) & International Labour Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward’, (ILO and UNICEF, New York, 2025. License: CC BY 4.0) – Read more here – for sub-Saharan Africa gives 86,616,000 for 2024, for Africa gives 94,529,000 and for the World gives 137,562,000 for a share of 63.0% for sub-Saharan Africa in 2024 and a share of 68.7% for Africa in 2024.

8. International Labour Office and United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward’, (ILO and UNICEF, New York, 2021. License: CC BY 4.0). Read more here – p.78 shows Africa Child Labour in 2016 as 72,100,000 & International Labour Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward’, (ILO and UNICEF, New York, 2025. License: CC BY 4.0) – Read more here – for Africa gives 94,529,000 for 2024 an increase in the number of African child labourers of 22,416,000 from 2016-2024 equivalent to 53,885 more African Child Labourers a week & Forbes ‘World Billionaire’s List’, Read more here – gives 3,028 Billionaires in 2025 (of which less than 1% are African) and 1,810 billionaires in 2016. This means an increase in non-African billionaires of at least 1,195 which gives an average of 132 a year and 2.55 a week.

9. World Bank ‘Global Estimate of Children in Monetary Poverty: An Update’ – Read more here – shows in Annexe Table 2 that a majority of those living on less than $1.90 a day, a previous international poverty line, were under 18.

[10] World Bank, ‘Poverty Indicator Platform’ – Get data here – gives for sub-Saharan Africa gives 424,420,885 for 2000 and 587,171,302 for 2025 & World gives 2,234,216,060 for 2000 and 808,206,139 for 2025 so the percentage of the global total living below the International Poverty Line who were sub-Saharan African was 19.0% in 2000 and 72.7% in 2025.

11. United Nations Children’s Fund ‘Under-Five Mortality’- see more here – shows for Africa (sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa) for 2023 that 2,844,963 African children under 5 have died since the year 2000. Deducting the U5 mortality rate for Europe from the North Africa and Africa U5 mortality rates gives 2,653,769 unnecessary African child deaths in 2023 (latest year) & Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia ‘United States military casualties of war’ – Read more here – shows 1,308,464 US military deaths since 1776.

12. World Bank ‘’GDP (constant 2015 US$) Indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.KD – Read more here gives World GDP in Constant USD as $65 trillion in 2010 and $93.35 trillion in 2023, an increase of over $28 trillion & United Nations Children’s Fund ‘Under-Five Mortality’- see more here – shows for Africa (sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa) that 45,315,259 African children under 5 have died since the year 2010. Deducting the U5 mortality rate for Europe from both regional rates gives 42,177,697 unnecessary African child deaths 2010-2023

13. Good Reads ‘Mahatma Gandhi > Quotes > Quotable Quote’ – Read more here

14. World Bank ‘’GDP (constant 2015 US$) Indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.KD – Read more here & ‘GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) Indicator NY.GDP.PCAP.KD’ Read more here both show world totals for GDP and GDP per person are the highest they have ever been