More Than 5 Million Children Worldwide Have Lost A Parent Or Caregiver To Covid, Study Suggests

Topline

Roughly 5.2 million children around the world have lost a parent or caregiver to Covid-19, according to a study published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health medical journal, a figure that dramatically accelerated as the pandemic continued leaving many of the world’s most vulnerable people without the support or resources they need as existing care systems struggle to cope.

More than 5 million children lost parents or caregivers to Covid-19, a study found.

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Key Facts

The estimate is based on modeling of mortality data from 20 countries including the U.S., England, India and Peru from March 2020 to October 2021.

Estimates of the numbers of children affected by the death of a parent or caregiver nearly doubled in the six months from May 2021 through October 2021 compared to the first 14 months of the pandemic (March 2020 through April 2021), the researchers found.

Data from recent months, which would account for the wave of omicron infections, “may push the true toll even higher,” said University College London’s Professor Lorraine Sherr, the study’s senior author.

Though large numbers of young children were orphaned by Covid—nearly 500,000 children ages 0-4 and nearly 740,000 ages 5-9—adolescents aged 10-17 (2.1 million children) accounted for almost two out of three children who lost a parent or carer to Covid-19.

Three out of four children who lost a parent to Covid during the pandemic lost their father, the study found, which the researchers said is in line with a trend towards later fatherhood and the increased risk of Covid-19 in older people.

The researchers said children who have lost a parent or caregiver are at greater risk of poverty, exploitation, abuse, HIV infection, mental health issues and leaving school to care for younger siblings and urged governments to ensure children are considered in pandemic response efforts.

Big Number

200,500. That’s how many U.S. children lost one or both parents to Covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to the group’s estimate.

Tangent

The study’s authors compared the death toll of Covid-19 to that of HIV/AIDS, which has also left millions orphaned around the world. Covid-19 has done so much more rapidly, said Sherr, orphaning the same number of children as HIV/AIDS did in 10 years in just two. Study author Professor Chris Desmond, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, said the global health community must build on the two decades worth of experience in supporting vulnerable children through the HIV/AIDS epidemic and offer the same support to children who have lost parents due to Covid-19. “We have seen that timely, responsive, and supportive intervention transforms damage into lifelong dividends. Hesitation is a luxury we cannot afford.”

What We Don’t Know

The precise numbers of children orphaned by Covid-19. The researchers’ analysis is based on modeling and the best available data, but they acknowledge this cannot measure the actual number of children affected by Covid-19 and that many countries do not have robust reporting systems for births or deaths.

Crucial Quote

Writing in a linked comment, the University of Texas’ Dr. Michael Goodman described the modeling as “an ongoing attempt to hit a moving target—heart-wrenching and unavoidably incomplete.” Goodman, who was not involved in the study, said the model only provided “time, person and place” and not the important social structures children are integrated in. “To best protect children, we must consider the individual, family, community, national, and global factors that affect their wellbeing,” he said, adding the issue is arising “at a time nearing resource exhaustion across multiple systems.”