Growing Up a Girl in the Maldives: What the Numbers Show

Maldives has made major gains for girls, but adolescence still exposes sharp gaps in health, safety and opportunity.

Maldives has achieved near-universal access to basic education with gender parity, while child marriage among girls aged 15–17 has effectively disappeared from the latest Census. But other indicators point to significant concerns around adolescent health, protection, and the transition from school into further education, training or work.

advertisement

advertisement

From anaemia among schoolgirls to the disproportionate number of girls recorded as victims of sexual offences, here is what the available data tells us about growing up as a girl in the Maldives.

Nearly Half of Girls Screened in Malé Were Anaemic

Anaemia remains a major health concern among adolescent girls in the Maldives.

According to UNICEF’s regional report Progress and Promise, health screening carried out in 2024 across 27 schools in the Malé region covered 4,444 students in Grades 9 to 12, including 2,275 girls. The screening found that 49 percent of girls were anaemic, compared with just 5 percent of boys.

The findings point to a longstanding concern. UNICEF’s 2025 Situation Analysis of Children and Adolescents in the Maldives, drawing on the 2016–17 Maldives Demographic and Health Survey, notes that around 60 percent of girls aged 15–19 were anaemic in the latest nationally representative survey available.

The 2024 school screening also found particularly high levels of anaemia among girls carrying the beta-thalassaemia trait. UNICEF reported that 95 percent of female beta-thalassaemia carriers screened were anaemic, compared with 23 percent of girls who were not carriers.

As the 2024 screening covered schools in the Malé region rather than the entire country, the 49 percent figure should not be interpreted as a national prevalence rate.

Girls Accounted for Four in Five Child Sexual-Offence Victims

Girls are disproportionately represented among children recorded as victims of sexual offences in the Maldives.

According to the Maldives Police Service data compiled in UNICEF’s 2025 Situation Analysis, police handled 816 sexual-offence cases involving children between January 2021 and September 2024, covering a total of 862 child victims.

Of those victims, 693 were girls, accounting for 80.4 percent of the total. The remaining 169 victims, or 19.6 percent, were boys.

The same UNICEF analysis shows that adolescents made up the majority of recorded victims. Of the 862 children, 36 percent were aged 11–14 and another 37 percent were aged 15–17.

UNICEF Maldives has also reported that more than 15 percent of adolescent girls have experienced physical or sexual violence, highlighting protection as a continuing concern during adolescence.

Girls in the Atolls Are More Likely to Be Outside Education, Work or Training

The transition from school into further education and employment also differs between Malé and the atolls.

According to the Maldives Bureau of Statistics’ Child Equity: Census 2022 report, 13 percent of girls aged 15–17 in Malé were not in education, employment or training, commonly referred to as NEET.

Among girls of the same age living in the atolls, the figure stood at 17 percent.

The Census report shows that the national NEET rate for girls aged 15–17 was around 15 percent, compared with 16 percent for boys.

The gap between Malé and the atolls suggests that geography continues to influence the opportunities available to girls as they approach the end of compulsory schooling.

The Number of Girls Outside Education Rises Sharply After 15

One of the clearest changes in the Census data appears at the end of lower secondary education.

The Maldives Bureau of Statistics recorded just 80 girls aged 6–15 outside education nationwide in Census 2022.

At age 16, however, the number rose to 582 girls.

By age 17, 1,294 girls were not attending education.

The comparison is particularly striking because the figure of 80 represents the combined total across all ages from six to 15, while the figures for 16 and 17 each represent a single age.

In its analysis of Census 2022, the Maldives Bureau of Statistics notes that access to higher-secondary education remains more limited than access to basic education, particularly in the atolls. This can make the transition beyond lower secondary school more difficult for some students.

The figures underline an important distinction in the Maldives’ education story: access to basic education is extremely high, but retaining adolescents in education beyond that stage remains a separate challenge.

No Marriages Were Recorded Among Girls Aged 15–17

There has also been significant progress in reducing child marriage.

The Maldives Bureau of Statistics reported in its Child Equity: Census 2022 analysis that no marriages were recorded among girls aged 15–17.

The report notes that the Child Rights Protection Act, ratified in 2019, established 18 as the legal minimum age of marriage, and that no underage marriages had been reported since the legislation came into effect.

The longer-term trend also points to very low levels of child marriage. Census 2022 recorded 12,430 women aged 20–24, of whom just 17 reported having married before turning 18 — equivalent to around 0.1 percent.

While this represents a clear area of progress, the wider data on adolescent girls shows that reaching adulthood still comes with significant challenges.

Maldivian girls are overwhelmingly present in school throughout the basic education years, and child marriage has fallen to exceptionally low levels. Yet the sharp decline in educational participation after age 15, high levels of anaemia, and girls’ disproportionate representation among victims of sexual offences show where greater attention is still needed.

The data suggests that adolescence is a particularly important period — one where the gains made for girls during childhood need to be carried through into their health, safety, education and opportunities as young adults.