138 million children are in child labor. What does this actually mean?

In 2024, a United Nations report estimated that 138 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor.

This figure represents about 8% of all children aged 5 to 17.

To put this into perspective, 138 million children would fill approximately 2 million school buses.

The Sustainable Development Goals aimed to eliminate all forms of child labor by 2025, but this target was not met.

The term child labor refers to work done by children that is likely to harm their health, safety, or moral development, or interfere with their schooling.

This definition has evolved over more than a century through international legal conventions, starting with early agreements in the early 20th century.