FACTBOX: Global number of widows rises as war and disease take toll

The crushing poverty and persecution faced by millions of widows worldwide, and the devastating impact on their children, is outlined in a major report on widowhood to be presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday.

Here are some facts from the Loomba Foundation’s World Widows Report:

* There are an estimated 258,481,056 widows globally with 584,574,358 children (including adult children).

* The number of widows has grown by 9 percent since 2010, partly because of conflicts and disease.

* The biggest jump has been in the Middle East and North Africa where the estimated number of widows rose 24 percent between 2010 and 2015, partly due to the Syrian war and other conflicts.

* One in seven widows globally is living in extreme poverty.

* One in 10 women of marital age is widowed. The proportion is around one in five in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

* One in three widows worldwide live in India or China.

* India, with an estimated 46 million widows, has overtaken China (44.6 million) to become the country with the largest number of widows.

* A significant number of girls are widowed in childhood – a reflection of the prevalence of child marriage in developing countries and the custom of marrying off young girls to much older men.