About the Changing Childhood Project

Motivation

We are living through an era of rapid and far-reaching transformation. As the world has changed — becoming more digital, more globalized, and more diverse — childhood is changing with it. The Changing Childhood Project — a collaboration of UNICEF and Gallup — was created to explore these shifts, and to better understand what it means to be a child in the 21st century. The project seeks to answer two questions: What is it like growing up today? And how do young people see the world differently? To answer these questions, we wanted to hear from children and young people themselves. Comparing the experiences and views of young versus older people offers a powerful lens to explore how childhood is changing, and where generations diverge or converge. The ultimate goal of the project is to centre young people — their experiences and perspectives — in the work of improving life for all children, today and into the future.

The survey

To explore the Project's questions and themes, UNICEF and Gallup designed a bespoke survey, which was then implemented in 21 countries around the world. Drawing on its expertise from carrying out its annual World Poll, Gallup surveyed representative samples of at least 1,000 people in each country (1,500 in India). In each country, the sample was divided into two age cohorts: 15 to 24 year-olds (aligned with the United Nations' definition of youth), and those aged 40 years and older. Surveys were conducted between February and June 2021. All respondents were reached by phone. Developed with the assistance of a range of experts, the survey instrument includes questions that had been tested in other polls, as well as new ones developed specifically for the Changing Childhood Project. More information about the methodology can be found here.

The microsite

This microsite was commissioned by UNICEF to enable people from around the world, especially children and young people, to engage with the Project's questions and explore its findings. We hope you enjoy it! The microsite was developed by the design firm, CLEVER°FRANKE. No data about users are collected through this microsite.

The results

The results presented in this microsite draw directly from the survey data. All references to an overall figure or average—e.g., “on average” or “an average of”—refer to the survey results for a given question for the median country across the 21 surveyed. Similarly, the “average” for a given country income group is derived from survey results from the median country in that group of countries. Given the size of the country samples, and the division of the sample into two age cohorts, most of the results presented in this microsite have a margin of error of approximately +/- 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Margins of error will be larger for smaller subgroups within a population. More information on how to interpret the results can be found on the methodology page here.

Learn more

A more thorough exploration of the Project's findings can be found in the Project's report, which is available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. Users who wish to dig further are encouraged to review the questionnaire, methodology, full microdata and codebook linked on this page. We would love to hear what you discover from your own analyses! If you have any questions, or would like to tell us how you are using the Project, please email us at Changing-Childhood@unicef.org.

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