The latest 2024 global estimates, released in 2025 by UNICEF and the ILO, reveal a historic turning point in the fight against child labour. While several regions have seen a return to progress, East Asia and the Pacific has emerged as the clear global leader, nearly halving its child labour prevalence in just four years.
According to the data, the child labour rate in the region plummeted from 5.6% in 2020 to just 3.2% in 2024. This represents a staggering 43% reduction in the absolute number of children working—dropping from 49 million to approximately 28 million. This rapid decline is the most significant relative gain recorded globally, effectively reversing the stagnation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.