Developed at the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), the Child Labour Database (CLD-INED) provides regularly updated global measurements of child labour to support research and public policy.
The CLD-INED database is designed to enable detailed, comparable, and transparent analyses of child labour across countries and over time, with a strong focus on measuring statistical uncertainty.
What is Child Labour?
Measuring child labour is challenging because there is no single agreed-upon definition, which impacts study results and public policy.
“Definitions and methodologies affect who is counted, recognized, protected, and given alternatives.”
— Deborah Levison, A Feminist Economist’s Approach to Children’s Work, p. 20
Most existing measures focus on market work and overlook the importance of children’s domestic work within the family. Our article published in Population & Societies explores this issue.
The database therefore presents estimates based on multiple definitions so that users can quantify the phenomenon of child labour through its various dimensions.
What the Database Offers
The CLD-INED compiles child labour indicators derived from household surveys. Data are available at multiple geographic levels, with breakdowns enabling different definitions:
- age
- sex
- type of work
- hours worked
The CLD-Ined data are published under a CC BY 4.0 license.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Data and documentation will be released progressively alongside future research publications.
Our upcoming paper, “Revisiting Global Trends of Child Labour from 2000 to 2024,” will be presented this year at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA), as well as at the European Population Conference (EPC).
The CLD-INED team
Contact
Andrea Verhulst-Georgoulis – andrea.verhulst@ined.fr