Facts in Q&A format

A person is transgender if their gender identity does not fully correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth. A person is intersex if their genitalia or other physical sexual characteristics do not fit the typical characteristics of a male or female body. The two concepts are not the same, althou...

In 2018, the number of girls and women married in childhood in Nigeria stood at 22 million, according to the most recent data from UNICEF. The population of Nigeria stood at just under 196 million (195,874,685) which amounts to an incidence rate of 11,232 child brides per 100,000 people. ...

According to a report released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), Marriages and Divorces, 2019, the median age is 32 among first-time brides in civil marriages, up from 31 the year before and 30 in 2015. First-time grooms are getting older too – from 34 in 2015 to 35 in 2019. ...

The South African Police Service (SAPS) recorded 36,330 rapes in 2020/21. The rape rate – calculated based on the national mid-year population estimates (60.14 million in 2021) – was 60.41 per 100,000 population, a slight decrease from the rate in 2019/20 which was 71.6 per 100,000 people. ...

Statistics South Africa’s Inequality Trends in South Africa report, which was released in 2019, found that women earned on average 30% less than men in the same jobs. The report reveals that males are more likely to be employed and have relatively better-paying jobs compared to females. ...

For 2021, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) estimates the mid-year population at 60.14 million people. Approximately 51.1% (approximately 30.75 million) of the population is female. ...

Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with six of the world’s 10 countries where the practice is most common situated in West and Central Africa, including Niger, the Central African Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea. In all six of these count...

The UN estimates that 200 million women and girls around the world have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), with 80% (160 million) occurring in Africa. ...

According to the most recent figures by the World Bank, Sudanese women had the highest unemployment rate in Africa in 2020 at 31.2%, followed by women in South Africa with an unemployment rate of 31.1%, Gabon with 29.8%, Eswatini with 27.4% and Botswana with 25.7%. ...