OECD Development Centre

Shout outs to OECD Development Centre

thor: Hello OECD Dev! 10 months ago

UNECE: Hi, we created a new group "It's official!" for official stats. You are welcome to join/feature some data. Cheers, UNECE 11 months ago

sara: hi! it would be interesting to know more about your methodology. great data! 11 months ago

About Me

Created in 1962 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, the Development Centre is an interface between OECD Member countries and the emerging and developing economies. It is a forum where countries come to share their experience of economic and social development policies. The Centre contributes expert analysis to the development policy debate. The objective is to help decision makers find policy solutions to stimulate growth and improve living conditions in developing and emerging economies. Read more about the Development Centre here.

Please also visit our new initiative Wikigender (www.wikigender.org).

Featured Graphs

Benin, Cambodia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Egypt

Child Marriage Across Time

In basically all countries, the proportion of women who are married at the age of 15 has decreased over time. This is good news as early marriage significantly deprives people's social and economic mobility and especially harms the development of women. However, figures remain at alarming rates in several countries, including Bangladesh and Niger (both 27.3%), Guinea (20.2%) and Mali (19.4%).

Prevalence of early marriage (% of women) by Country

Early marriage is very prevalent in some developing countries. The situation is particularly worrisome in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. An incredible 62 per cent of all girls between 15 and 19 years have been married at least once in Niger. Early marriage deprives women of adequate education and significantly lowers their chances in the labour market.

Featured Data Sets

Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)

Gender inequality is often hidden in social norms, believes and cultural practices. This composite index measures gender inequality in four areas of social institutions: the family code, women's physical integrity, civil liberties and ownership rights. As illustrated by the SIGI, women face severe inequalities in social institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.

Recent Comments

Missing women

sara: So this isn't women gone missing. It is more an indicator to get at things like infanticide and gender bias? (11 months ago)

OECD Development Centre: Yup. This indicator measures the number of women that should be alive, but are 'missing' due to sex-selective abortions etc. (11 months ago)

Prevalence of early
marriage (% of wom..

Natalie: With the map version i can see what visnu means by the numbers radiating outwards from Niger. I wonder if the countries with a higher prevalence of child marriage have similar customs, religion, view of women, etc. Or why exactly this is still taking place in some parts of the world and not others. (10 months ago)

OECD Development Centre: Thanks for your comments. Data junkie: finding hard data is precisely the problem that we try to address with our data set; there is very little out there. We have tried to compile an historic overview of how early marriage developed across countries (http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1007847). You are welcome to compare this to the economic development of these countries, for example. Might be an interesting exercise. Visnu/Natalie: early marriage is clearly related to a country's customs, religion or view of women. In our overview paper (http://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/devaaa/247-en.html) we find that inequalities in social institutions (such as marriage customs) are particularly high in part of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East/North Africa region. (9 months ago)