UN report says boys outnumber girls in the world

Countries are urged to invest in girls as the majority of the world’s 10-year-olds live in developing countries, while girls are substantially outnumbered by boys, a UN report has said on Friday.

The 2016 State of the World Population report released by the United Nations Population Fund focused on the well-being of 10-year-old girls as indicators of development success or failure.

“An estimated 125 million 10-year-olds are alive today and among them over 60 million are girls and 65 million are boys.

“Over half of the global cohort of 10-year-olds live in Asia and the Pacific, where there are 111 boys for 100 girls.

“Almost 9 in 10 of the world’s 10-year-olds live in developing countries where girls face obstacles to equal education, healthcare and safety,’’ the report said.

According to Daniel Baker, regional humanitarian coordinator and head of the fund’s Jordan country office, failure to invest in girls is nothing less than planned poverty. “Unless we invest in girls, we are planning to have a poorer future,’’ Baker noted.

The report also indicated that the world’s population grew 1.1 per cent in 2016 to 7.433 billion from 7.349 billion in 2015.