The International Labour Organisation states in its latest World Report on Child Labour (2013) that there are around 265 million working children in the world—almost 17 per cent of the worldwide child population. According to the publicly available data discussed in more detail below, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where child labour is most prevalent. While absolute numbers are still high, particularly in those countries with the lowest standards of living, from a historical viewpoint there are concrete examples of countries that managed to virtually eliminate widespread child labour in the course of a century. The United Kingdom is a case in point. In terms of recent developments, global trends show a significant reduction in child labour over the last couple of decades. However, there is wide dispersion in the progress that different countries have achieved.
Long-run history of child labour in today’s rich countries
Historical studies suggest that child work was widespread in Europe and North America in the 19th century, but declined very rapidly at the turn of the 20th century. The available historical evidence seems consistent with the fact that industrialisation in western countries initially increased the demand for child labour, but then eventually contributed towards its elimination (see Cunningham, H., & Viazzo, P. P. (1996)1 and the references therein). These three visualizations show the share of children in employment for Italy, the UK and the United States at the turn of the 20th century. For the US chart you can add data on rural versus urban child labour trends: for both boys and girls, the incidence of child labour was higher in rural populations.
As we see, the incidence of child labour in Italy appeared to be higher than that of the UK and US, with slower rates of decline. In the US, by 1930 the incidence of child labour is estimated to be below 5%; this level was not reached in Italy until around 30 years later, in 1960.
Whilst consistent survey data on child labour in the UK is limited beyond 1911, some estimates of 20th century labour have emerged. These statistics show the significant impact of the First and Second World Wars on childhood employment. Following a reported spike in employment during the First World War (1914-1918), rates of childhood labour appeared to fall to approximately 6-7 per cent of children aged 12-14 in England and Wales.2 This would make the UK’s rate of reduction in child labour slightly faster than that of the United States. However, with the onset of the Second World War in 1939, the incidence of child employment appeared to show another spike- by 1944, this had increased again to 15.3 per cent of 12-14 year olds
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