Study quantifies annual cost of child marriage in Nigeria

A study authored by Xiangming Fang, a research associate professor in the Georgia State University School of Public Health, provides the first estimates of the significant economic burden that child marriage imposes on the people and economy of Nigeria.

A previous UNICEF study found that 42% of girls and women in Nigeria—nearly 24 million people—were married or in a union before the age of 18. The new study authored by Fang, which appears in Child Abuse & Neglect, has found that the cost of failing to end child marriage is $10 billion per year and that ending child marriage could boost the gross domestic product of Africa’s most populous nation by nearly 2%.

This information is critical, the study notes, for informing laws, policies and programs to prevent and respond to child marriage.

“Child marriage exacts a devastating toll on lives and economies alike, with our study revealing an annual $10 billion burden on Nigeria’s GDP,” Fang said. “Beyond heartbreaking statistics, it highlights an urgent call to action, emphasizing the imperative of dismantling this societal challenge for the well-being of Nigerian youth and the economic prosperity of Nigeria.”

Fang analyzed data from the nationally representative Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey and estimated the economic consequences of child marriage by assessing the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. The economic burden was also estimated by calculating the negative impact of child marriage on the educational attainment of girls and the associated reduction in earnings.

Health and educational Impacts

The researchers found that as a result of child marriage, approximately 3,489 girls in 2019 alone died from complications of pregnancy and childbirth and that nearly 40,000 children under 5 years of age died as a result of low birth weight, anemia and other complications. The economic impact of these deaths, coupled with non-fatal health outcomes, totals $8.37 billion.

In addition, child marriage decreases the likelihood of completing secondary or higher education by 23%, which reduces earnings and productivity by 12%. The economic impact of these reductions in earnings and productivity totals $2.5 billion. In total, the economic burden of child marriage is $10 billion annually, or 2% of Nigeria’s gross domestic product.

The study quantified the impacts of child marriage by calculating disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which are a common measure of overall disease burden expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. Fang found that DALYs lost to child marriage are more than four times the corresponding Nigerian estimates for DALYs lost to diabetes and comparable to those lost to HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular diseases.

“The magnitude of our findings underscores the imperative for comprehensive, multifaceted interventions to break the cycle of child marriage, safeguard lives and fortify the economic fabric of Nigeria,” Fang said.