Population
How many children are in the world?
About 2,403,551,000 children under 18 live in the world in the UN's 1 July 2026 projection—28.96% of the population.
28.96% of the same dated world population.
World · 1 July 2026 · UN WPP 2024 medium projection. Rounded for readability; not a live census.
Who is included?
Children here means everyone younger than 18 at the reference date: completed ages 0 through 17, both sexes combined. Someone who has turned 18 is excluded. Infants younger than one are included in age 0.
How the total is calculated
We add the 18 individual age cells in the UN World row, then divide by the same source's world population of 8,300,678,395. We do not treat an under-15 group as under 18 or divide a five-year age group to invent missing ages.
The sum before presentation rounding is 2,403,551,395. The headline is rounded to the nearest thousand. The same single-age dataset powers People my age, so the definitions and reference year stay consistent.
Why might another source show a different number?
Some statistics define children as under 15, use a different year, or rely on a different projection revision. Those populations are not interchangeable. This page uses under 18 throughout, including in the percentage.
This is a medium-variant projection, not a live count of individual children. It does not describe children enrolled in school, living with parents, or any particular living condition. Annual age estimates should not be given artificial second-by-second motion.
Sources and reference date
United Nations, World Population Prospects 2024, World (location 900), Medium variant, 2026. Single-age population on 1 July; ages 0–99 and 100+. Source counts in thousands are converted to people. Percentages use the same dated world total of 8,300,678,395; they do not use the moving homepage counter.
- Original UN single-age workbook — 'Medium variant'!L20:DH20
- Original UN demographic indicators workbook — World, 2026, Medium variant
- UN methodology
- UN data licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO