The number of children worldwide living in conflict zones passed the half a billion mark in 2024, rising by 47 million to roughly 520 million, humanitarian group Save the Children said in a report published on Tuesday. 

The figure was the highest recorded since 2005 and meant that one in five children worldwide was living in active conflict zones. 

The report counts people as living in a conflict zone if they live within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of at least one armed exchange inside the same country, or in a broader conflict that has claimed at least 25 lives in the course of a year.

By this definition, the report found 11% of the Earth's landmass could be deemed to be in a conflict zone — the highest share since records began and an increase of almost one-third since 2023.

More than 40,000 grave violations, half of them in four places

The study also noted that 41,763 grave violations against children were verified by the UN, a 30% increase from the year before.

More than half of these took place in just four areas: the Palestinian Territories, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Somalia.

Florian Westphal, the director of Save the Children Germany, also warned that this figure was a very conservative one. 

"This statistic only shows the tip of the iceberg," Westphal said. "The number of unrecorded cases is extremely high." 

Almost half the affected children in Africa

As a region, Africa had both the most children living in conflict zones, 218 million, and the highest proportion of its children, 32.6%, in such a situation.

It was the first year when African children were statistically more likely to be exposed to armed conflict than those in the Middle East, even as the war in Gaza accounted for more than a quarter of serious violations against children counted by the UN.

The study recorded 61 state-based conflicts worldwide, meaning those involving at least one state government as a warring party, the highest figure on record since 1946.

Recorded abductions and sexual violence on the rise

"As with recruitment [to armed forces and groups], children from countries in Africa are over-represented when it comes to abductions, comprising 86% of verified cases in 2024," Save the Children said in the report. 

It noted 991 cases in Nigeria, 887 in Somalia and 815 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying high figures had been consistently verified in these three countries over the past five years. 

The study also found that recorded cases of sexual violence against children in conflict zones had almost doubled in a decade, from just over 1,000 in 2015 to 1,982 in 2024.

Of these, 87% took place in just five conflict situations: Haiti, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

"As mentioned, this specific violation is under-reported due to a range of perceived stigmas, with sexual violence against boys particularly under-reported. In 10 conflict situations no cases of sexual violence against children are verified at all," the NGO warned.

Save the Children also noted four consecutive years of rising instances of attacks on schools and hospitals, or the use of these facilities for military purposes. One third of these incidents took place in Ukraine, with 1,981 verified attacks on schools in Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion. 

"We also see an alarming number of attacks [on schools and hospitals] in the occupied Palestinian territory, Myanmar and Haiti," Save the Children said.

Edited by: Zac Crellin