Ecuador has never had as many youths and adolescents as now.  Between 1974 and 2001 the number of adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age increased from 1.6 million to 2.6 million, an absolute increase of 1 million or 64%.  The population of adolescents and youths between 10 and 24 increased 1,591,000 (74%), going from 2,150,000 to 3,750,000.  According to UNDP’s 2004 Human Development Report, one out of three Ecuadorians was under the age of 15 in 2002.  It is estimated that in the next 25 years Ecuador will have a population predominantly made of infants and youth.

According to the data of the 2001 Population Census, 7,447,221 Ecuadorians or 61.3% of the people live under the poverty line. One out of two Ecuadorians between the ages of 14 and 29 live in poverty and make up 50% of the countries poor.  In 2003, 77% of adolescents in rural areas and 44% of those in cities came from homes with incomes of less than two dollars a day per person.  This limited capacity on spending has restricted access to education, information, recreation, and a safe environment.  Nearly 320,000 children between 8 and 17 years of age are declared workers, the majority being adolescents. Only one in five of these working youth can work and study at the same time.  In young males, 29% attribute to the economically active population (EAP), 22% in urban areas and 39% in rural areas.  In young women the EAP is 13%, with 11% in cities and 16% in rural areas.  In 2001, 1,628,018 Ecuadorians were between the ages of 12 and 18; with 5 in 10 living in poor homes; 3 in 10 not registered for secondary school; 2 in 10 working and not studying; 3 in 10 sexually active; 4 in 10 smoking; 3 in 10 consuming alcoholic beverages; 6 in 10 taking illegal drugs and more that 150,000 with fathers outside of the country.

The death risk among young women is more distinct than that among males.  For example, around 750 males between the ages of 14 and 29 died from aggressive causes in 1998, while only 60 women in the same age group died from similar causes.  The four principle causes of death among youth under 24 years of age has nothing to do with sickness rather avoidable social circumstances, violence, and lack of care for health and life, transit accidents, aggression and self inflicted wounds. One in two deaths in youth between 12 and 17 years of age are from avoidable causes such as accidents, homicides and suicides. 

In 2003 the smaller incorporation of youths in the educational system became evident from fewer registrations of youths between 14 and 17 years of age; the number of youths in this age group diminished from 64% to 57% between 1999 and 2001.  For the Social Observatory of Ecuador, three in ten adolescents, throughout the country, were not registered for classes in the secondary system in the 2002-2004 period.  Of the 92,407 youth between 10 and 24 years of age, 2.5% had not received any instruction. 33.1% received 5 to 7 years of basic education while only 7% received a high school diploma. 

The percentage of the population older than 24 years old that have been in the university system or another higher education system has increased.  22% of youths between the ages of 25 and 29 have had at least one of more years of higher education. Without a doubt, despite the increase in the university level attendance, only 1.6% completes four years of instruction. Currently about 1 million youth (between 10 and 17 years of age) are working, in which 42% of them work and do not study; 22% work and study; 20% work, study and do domestic labour; 54% started working between 10 and 14 years of age and 26% between 15 and 19; and 18% working in the streets or working in construction without proper protection. 

The 2004 August bulletin of Ecuador’s Social Observatory makes reference to INEC’s 2001 first child labour survey, which concludes that among working adolescents between 12 and 17, 55% work to help their families, 47% don’t receive income for their work, 27% are exposed to health risks at work, 82% don’t use protective equipment at work, 25% feel obligated to work, 43% do not play in their free time, and 36% give all or most of their income to their family. Besides working, these youths also dedicate 10 hours a week to housework.

At end of the the 1980’s, the National Youth Office (DNJ) was created under the Ministry of Well-Being.  At the beginning of the 1990’s, an ample contingent of youths worked intensely on the Literacy Campaign, gaining important impacts.  Recently, a large youth movement worked on the design of an Integral Youth Plan Proposal for 2004-2008. Unfortunately, this proposal was centred more on proposals for youth protagonist in the DNJ, and significantly neglected public policies that need to be reformulated and implemented to improve the standards of living of youths as well as to increase participation of new generations in different areas of citizen participation.

Read more information about this country in Spanish