October 11, 2016 is the International Day of the Girl child. The commemoration is a a United Nations led initiative supporting the more than 1.1 billion girls worldwide who are a powerful force for shaping a sustainable world.

It is an undeniable fact around the world that the girl child is faced with a lot of challenges, including violence, discrimination and inequality that threatens to suffocate the numerous talent she is endowed with.

The theme of this years commemoration is “Girls’ Progress = Goals’ Progress: A Global Girl Data Movement”. It is a call to action on increasing the availability and analysis of girl-focused and sex-disaggregated data.

One issue that is standing in the way of girls’ progress is child marriage. It is a sad reality, but the statistics shows that one in three girls in developing countries (except China) get married before they turn 18.

Here are some other facts about this sad reality that is worthy of note. The statistics are provided by the UN.

1.  Globally, one in seven adolescent girls aged 15 – 19 are currently married or in union.

2. In developing countries (excluding China), one in every three girls is married before reaching age 18. This means the futures of 47,700 girls are derailed every day.

3. Girls who are married early often face a cascade of other human rights abuses. They are more vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. They are often pulled out of school to take on domestic responsibilities. They are less able to advocate for themselves and their rights.

4. Child marriage is often followed by pregnancy, even if a girl is not yet physically or mentally ready. Every day, over 20,000 girls under age 18 give birth in developing countries—over 7 million a year.

5. Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy. With secondary schooling, girls are up to six times less likely to marry as children compared to girls who have little or no education.

6. Across the globe, rates of child marriage are highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where around 4 in 10 girls marry before age 18; about one in eight were married or in union before age 15. This is followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa, where 24 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively, of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married in childhood.