The numbers behind our mission.
We do not tell stories to move you. We show what the world's leading institutions have measured, and we build our programmes around it.
Where a child is born still decides too much.
333 million children live in extreme poverty, on less than $2.15 a day. Children are more than twice as likely as adults to be extremely poor.
UNICEF and World Bank, 2023children died before the age of five in 2023, most of them from causes that could have been prevented.
UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, 2024children and young people were out of school in 2024, and the number has been rising again since 2015.
UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Reportchildren, more than one in six, live in areas affected by conflict, twice the share of the 1990s.
UNICEF, 2024children under five in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential.
The Lancet, Early Childhood Development series66% of children live in multidimensional poverty, missing at least one basic need such as food, health care or education.
UNICEF Sierra Leonepupils leave school every year, most of them in middle school.
Ministry of National Education, 202519.5 million children, 24.2%, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024.
EurostatPoverty hits hardest where families are most stretched.
In the United Kingdom, 4.5 million children, 31%, lived in relative poverty after housing costs in 2023/24. The risk is much higher for some families than for others.
live in poverty: 1.5 million children in the UK.
of children in larger families live in poverty: 2.2 million children.
for comparison: the risk doubles as families grow.
Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, based on DWP Households Below Average Income, 2023/24.
Financial stress is never only about money.
Losing a job or falling into debt affects the whole family: its health, its relationships and, at worst, its safety. That is why our programmes for families in crisis matter so much.
- 727,000 people died by suicide worldwide in 2021. It is the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29. (WHO)
- About 1 in 5 suicides worldwide has been associated with unemployment, around 45,000 deaths a year across 63 countries studied. (Nordt et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2015)
- People in problem debt are three times as likely to have considered suicide in the past year as people without debt problems. (Money and Mental Health Policy Institute)
- Disagreements about money were the strongest predictor of divorce among all common types of marital disagreement, in a study following 4,574 couples. (Dew, Britt and Huston, Family Relations, 2012)
If you are struggling, you are not alone, and help is available now. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans are free to call, day or night, on 116 123. In an emergency anywhere in Europe, call 112. You can find a free, confidential helpline in your country at findahelpline.com.
The ETIOCA Foundation is not a crisis service. Suicide has many causes; financial difficulty is one recognised risk factor, and easing it is one part of prevention.
Each number became a programme.
First steps
For young families with children under five, when support changes the most.
Single parents and large families
For the families with the highest risk of poverty.
Bridge
For parents who lose their job, so that the children do not pay for it.
Sources
- UNICEF and World Bank, Global Trends in Child Monetary Poverty, September 2023.
- UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, report 2024.
- UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report, out-of-school estimates, 2024.
- UNICEF, "2024: one of the worst years in UNICEF's history for children in conflict", December 2024.
- The Lancet, Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale, 2016–2017.
- UNICEF Sierra Leone, Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents.
- Morocco, Ministry of National Education, school dropout figures, reported 2025.
- Eurostat, Children at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 2024 data.
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation, UK Poverty statistics, from DWP Households Below Average Income 2023/24.
- World Health Organization, Suicide worldwide in 2021: global health estimates.
- Nordt C. et al., Modelling suicide and unemployment, The Lancet Psychiatry, 2015.
- Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, A Silent Killer: breaking the link between financial difficulty and suicide, 2018.
- Dew J., Britt S., Huston S., Examining the relationship between financial issues and divorce, Family Relations, 2012.