Children out of school — all countries

Children out of school — Western Africa

Children out of school in Western Africa in 2020 — 4,069,755 people. Since 1999, the indicator has fallen by 74.8%.

2020 4.07M people −23.96% vs 2017
World rank
Period maximum 17.03M people2009
Period minimum 4.07M people2020

Trend over time

1999–2020 · people

Children out of school — Western Africa, 1999–202005M10M15M20M199920022005200820112014201720201999: 16,133,549 people2000: 14,386,011 people2003: 8,364,931 people2004: 13,378,314 people2005: 14,477,434 people2006: 14,455,095 people2007: 13,600,086 people2008: 14,839,690 people2009: 17,034,081 people2010: 15,114,242 people2011: 5,055,429 people2012: 5,149,144 people2013: 6,088,231 people2014: 6,915,268 people2015: 5,836,505 people2016: 5,557,528 people2017: 5,352,362 people2020: 4,069,755 people
Change over the period: −12.06M (−74.77%) Average annual rate: -6.35 %

Comparison, 2020

How the value compares with the world and the groups this territory belongs to: Western Africa

Western Africa 4.07M people
World computed 21.03M people
Children out of school — Western Africa, by year Western Africa All countries CSV XLSX
Year people Change Change, %
2020 4.07M
2017 5.35M −205,166 −3.69%
2016 5.56M −278,977 −4.78%
2015 5.84M −1.08M −15.6%
2014 6.92M +827,037 +13.58%
2013 6.09M +939,087 +18.24%
2012 5.15M +93,715 +1.85%
2011 5.06M −10.06M −66.55%
2010 15.11M −1.92M −11.27%
2009 17.03M +2.19M +14.79%
2008 14.84M +1.24M +9.11%
2007 13.6M −855,009 −5.91%
2006 14.46M −22,339 −0.15%
2005 14.48M +1.1M +8.22%
2004 13.38M +5.01M +59.93%
2003 8.36M
2000 14.39M −1.75M −10.83%
1999 16.13M

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.