1
ADOLESCENT AND YOUTH DEMOGRAPHICS: A BRIEF OVERVIEW
Definitions. While there are no universally accepted definitions of adolescence and youth, the United
Nations understands adolescents to include persons aged 10-19 years and youth as those between 15-
24 years for statistical purposes without prejudice to other definitions by Member States.
1
Together,
adolescents and youth are referred to as young people, encompassing the ages of 10-24 years. Due to
data limitations, these terms can refer to varying age groups that are separately defined as required.
Size. There are over 1.8 billion young people in the
world today, 90 per cent of whom live in developing
countries, where they tend to make up a large
proportion of the population. There are more than 235
million youth in India and 225 million in China alone.
Global trends. The number of adolescents
and youth today is at an all-time high, but
that number might not increase considerably
in coming decades if global fertility continues
to decline. The proportion of young people is
actually set to decline from 17.6 per cent in
2010 to 13.5 per cent in 2050.
3
Regional trends. The proportion of the
world’s young people between the ages of
12-24 years living in Africa is expected to rise
from 18 per cent in 2012 to 28 per cent by
2040, while the shares of all other regions
will decline. The region comprising Asia and the Pacific is expected to experience the sharpest decline,
from 61 per cent in 2012 to 52 per
cent by 2040.
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Health. Even though youth is in
general the healthiest period of life,
the international differences of
mortality amongst youth are striking.
In more developed regions, Northern
Africa, Eastern Asia and Western Asia
only 1 per cent or less of 15-year olds
do not survive to their 25th birthday.
Concurrently, the odds of dying
during youth are almost twice as high
in South Asia, and four times higher in
1
Report of the Advisory Committee for the International Youth Year (A/36/215 annex)
2
Population Division UN-DESA World Population Prospects: 2010 Revision
3
Population Division UN-DESA World Population Prospects: 2010 Revision
4
Andrew Mason, “Adolescents and Youth: Their Numbers and Economic Roles”, Keynote Presentation at 45th
Commission on Population and Development, based on Population Division UN-DESA World Population Prospects:
2010 Revision
WORLD POPULATION (MEDIUM VARIANT)2
Age group
2010 (thousands)
2050 (thousands)
10-14
602,054
632,965
15-19
606,144
627,881
20-24
606,816
624,050
Total
1,815,014
1,884,896
POPULATION AGED 10-24 (1950-2060)
POPULATION REGIONAL VARIATIONS (1950-2060)
