11 Countries with Highest Orphan Population

Today we bring you countries with serious issues that shouldn’t be ignored – countries with the highest orphan population. According to Unicef, there are around 150 million children living without parents. Orphans, as one of the most vulnerable social categories, face a high risk of sexual and labor exploitation, human and organ trafficking, they have limited access to education and health care, and many of them end up living on the streets where they get killed before turning 18 years. AIDS, poverty, natural calamities and wars are among the leading factors that leave children parentless.s.

Although Unicef estimates the orphan population at 150 million, other sources claim that there are over 200 million parentless children in the world. It is almost impossible to determine the number of orphans, as many of them are living in underdeveloped countries where records on parentless children aren’t systematically kept.

Arm conflicts, natural calamities, poverty, and AIDS, are among leading causes of children becoming orphans. Since the break out of Syrian crisis, the number of children who lost parents in the war has risen. Although there are no data on the number of Syrian orphans, the fact that only in, 8,000 children fled Syria without their parents speaks for itself. Natural calamities have equally devastating effects as wars. The earthquake in Haiti in 2011, with the death toll of 200.000, left 300.000 children without parental care. Poverty and AIDS greatly contribute increasing of orphan population as well, especially in underdeveloped regions. Every 15 seconds a child loses a parent because of AIDS-related conditions. In countries where millions suffer from the disease, more than half of all orphans have lost their parents due to AIDS. Finally, in poorest parts of the world, parents abandon their children as they can’t meet their basic needs with earnings that don’t exceed 1 to 2 dollars a day.

The number of orphans in a country correlates with country’s Human development index, which measures the quality of living. In less developed parts of the world, the orphan population is greater. Only in Sub-Saharan Africa, there were 56 million orphans according to Unicef. Thus, it is not a surprise that here you won’t find any of places ranked on our previous list 11 countries with highest white population.

We created the list 11 countries with highest orphan population using as a source Humanitarian Relief Foundation’s report on world’s orphans 2014. The report provides data for first ten countries with the most orphans in the world. To find the eleventh country, we relied on Unicef’s report “The state of the world’s children”. The reason why we didn’t only use Unicef’s data is that the organization doesn’t provide statistics for countries such as Afghanistan and China, which have large orphan population.

11. United Republic of Tanzania

Orphan population: 3.1 million

It is estimated that out of more than three million orphans living in Tanzania, up to 1.8 million lost parents due to AIDS. The second leading cause of children becoming parentless is widespread poverty that affects a third of country’s population. The majority of orphaned children are parental orphans, followed by maternal, while 1.1 percent of all orphans lost both parents. Orphans in Tanzania, as in other places on this list, are more vulnerable than children living in nuclear families. However, the difference in levels of disadvantage  between these two groups is not as high as one might expect as total Tanzania’s child population is exposed to similar risks – poverty, illnesses, exploitation.

10. South Africa

Orphan population: 3.5 million

In the country that has the highest number of HIV-infected persons, almost half of all orphans lost parents to the AIDS-related condition. The majority of orphaned children lost a father, smaller percent lives without a mother, while around 700.000 lost both parents. Unicef also estimates that around 150.000 children live in child-headed households that are mainly located in rural or urban informal areas and run by females who often drop out from school. The main needs of the children who take care of households are food, secure housing, access to health care, hygiene and education. They equally need support and counseling to deal with physiological traumas.

9. Brazil

Orphan population: 3.7 million

Two main reasons for children becoming orphans in Brazil are poverty and AIDS. UNAIDS estimates that from 60,000 to 250,000 children in Brazil have become orphans because their parents died of AIDS-related diseases while around 25 percent of them were abandoned by their parents because of poverty. Many orphans end up living on the streets with no protection at all. Apart from not having access to education and health care, these children are often easy prey for criminals and drug dealers who use them as “cheap” working force. Substance abuse, which is widespread among children living on streets, together with police repression and clashes between street gangs, often lead to their premature death.

8. Pakistan

Orphan population: 4.2 million

In the country where the average income is 255 dollars and more than half of population lives in poverty, many parents are forced to abandon their children because they can’t raise them. Moreover, series of natural calamities have left many children parentless. Earthquake in 2005 and floods in 2010 took thousands of lives, leaving many children without parents. Other factors leading to children becoming orphans are ethnic killings and terrorism. Currently, Pakistan lacks a national policy to deal with growing number of parentless children. New laws should be implemented, including strict regulation about who and under which condition can run an orphanage.

7. Congo

Orphan population: 4.2 million

In the country where armed conflict have taken more lives than Holocaust, children are the most vulnerable group. Congo is one of the poorest countries with life expectancy estimated at 48 years, where the majority of the population is severely undernourished without access to basic medical care. According to some sources around 11 percent of the total child population are orphaned due to war, poverty and disease. Besides facing great risk of poverty and exploitation, orphans in Congo often end up as child soldiers, forced to fight in the civil war.

6. Indonesia

Orphan population: 4.8 million

Poverty, along with natural calamities, has left many children in Indonesia without parental care. Only in the tsunami in 2005, 150.000 children lost their parents. A couple of years ago BBC reported on widespread money misuse in Indonesian orphanages. Counting on money from the government and tourists many decided to open orphanages and turn them into a profitable business. Needless to say, profit driven orphanages operate without thinking about children’s best interests. One of BBC’s interviewees explained that in some cases orphanage’s managers are like the mafia. „You find orphanage directors driving large cars and sending their children to expensive universities in Europe or America, while the children live in squalor.“

5. Ethiopia

Orphan population: 4.8 million

In the fifth country on our list 11 countries with highest orphan population, Ethiopia, one out of every 8 children is an orphan while around one million lost a parent because of AIDS. Although for years Ethiopia has been one of the countries from which the greatest number of children is being adopted, the orphan crisis won’t end soon, as the rate at which children are losing parents greatly exceeds the adoption rate. In last four years, adoption rate from Ethiopia plummeted because Ethiopian government decided to restrict international adoption after series of reported abuse of adopted children in America.

4. Bangladesh

Orphan population: 4.8 million

In the most densely populated country in the world, Bangladesh, one-third of all children are parentless or at risk of losing parents. Children who lose parents are placed in overcrowded orphanages where they don’t receive needed care and where they are forced to work to survive. Despite the fact that law prohibits children younger than 14 to work, 5 million Bangladesh’s children work in dangerous conditions for minimal wages. Child domestic workers are especially vulnerable as they often experience physical abuse from their employers. Moreover, the number of children living on streets is increasing. As in Brazil, street children in Bangladesh are struggling to survive in harsh conditions surrounded by everyday violence.

3. Nigeria

Orphan population: 12 million

In Nigeria, almost a million children become orphaned annually, mainly because of AIDS and poverty. Many children who lose parents are left entirely alone to run households. In order to survive, they are forced work in hazardous conditions subjected to abuse. Girls often end up in a cycle of prostitution without any protection from diseases, including HIV. Child trafficking is widespread in the country. Last year, CNN ran the story on how easily children are being sold with impunity in Nigeria.

2. China

Orphan population: 20.6 million

One-child policy in China, which was introduced between 1978 and 1980 to slow down population growth, had left millions of children orphaned. The great majority of them were girls as parents preferred sons who would continue to run family households. Last year the government canceled the one-child policy because of growing aging population. Although this change will certainly affect the orphan population in Chine, there are claims  that for some time now children with medical needs, not girls, are most often abandoned, as parents don’t have means or simply don’t want to take care of a child who has the serious medical condition.

1. India

Orphan population: 31 million

India ranks as first on our list 11 countries with the highest orphan population. Devastating statistics show that nine percent of all children in India are orphaned, 70 million are child laborers, 10 million are bonded laborers, 13 million are homeless, 2 million live on streets without families, and over two million are orphaned due to AIDS. All this make India the country where children are extremely vulnerable and exposed to different forms of abuse. Moreover, in last five years, adoption rate in India halved. In response to the decrease, the government introduced measures to make adoption procedure for foreigners easier and faster.