Children out of school — all countries

Children out of school — South Asia

Children out of school in South Asia in 2024 — 6,539,572 people. Since 2008, the indicator has risen by 119.3%.

2024 6.54M people −42.76% vs 2023
World rank
Period maximum 11.95M people2021
Period minimum 1.05M people2012

Trend over time

2008–2024 · people

Children out of school — South Asia, 2008–202405M10M15M2008201020122014201620182020202220242008: 2,982,476 people2009: 4,705,441 people2010: 3,813,144 people2011: 3,613,090 people2012: 1,049,631 people2016: 5,105,629 people2017: 7,922,586 people2018: 8,278,537 people2021: 11,950,621 people2022: 10,130,438 people2023: 11,424,666 people2024: 6,539,572 people
Change over the period: +3.56M (+119.27%) Average annual rate: 5.03 %
Children out of school — South Asia, by year South Asia All countries CSV XLSX
Year people Change Change, %
2024 6.54M −4.89M −42.76%
2023 11.42M +1.29M +12.78%
2022 10.13M −1.82M −15.23%
2021 11.95M
2018 8.28M +355,952 +4.49%
2017 7.92M +2.82M +55.17%
2016 5.11M
2012 1.05M −2.56M −70.95%
2011 3.61M −200,054 −5.25%
2010 3.81M −892,297 −18.96%
2009 4.71M +1.72M +57.77%
2008 2.98M

About the indicator

The number of children of primary school age who attend neither primary nor secondary school. The absolute count answers the question of the scale of the task rather than of the state of a country, and for that reason it diverges from the share: a large part of all out-of-school children in the world lives in a few big countries where the share is low, not in those where the share is high. Both numbers matter for planning, and together they produce different lists of priorities.

Important: Primary school age only. Adolescents who do not attend secondary school are not part of this series, although there are more of them.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), license CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.