One in ten children worldwide had their education disrupted by a climate-related event in 2025. This is a key finding that UNICEF identified by analyzing 106 countries and territories in the report“Learning Interrupted: Global Snapshot of Climate-Related School Disruptions in 2025.” This emergency has affected—and continues to affect— 171 million students, from preschool through high school, with storms topping the list of the most disruptive disasters.
Storms, Floods, Extreme Heat
Storms affected 109 million students, floods at least 70 million, and heat waves about 50 million. These figures overlap, as a single student may have experienced multiple events during the same school year. The effects are not limited to the temporary closure of classrooms; they include damaged or destroyed schools, reduced class hours, lower attendance, and an increased risk of dropping out. “For millions of children, climate-related hazards do more than just disrupt classes: they destroy their schools, uproot their families, and hit the most vulnerable the hardest,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
The Heaviest Burden Falls on Poor Countries
Seventy-five percent of the affected children live in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where school systems have limited resources to ensure educational continuity during emergencies. This is where the climate crisis becomes a matter of access to fundamental rights: without resilient buildings, without emergency plans, and without resources for reconstruction, every extreme event risks becoming a permanent setback for entire generations.
Girls Pay the Highest Price
The report devotes specific attention to gender inequalities. “Girls face greater risks of dropping out of school due to insecurity, unsafe learning environments, and child marriage,” the document states. Damage to schools and sanitation infrastructure, displacement, and loss of family income often fall on them in the form of responsibilities for household care or water collection. A dynamic that, according to UNICEF, “can also increase the risk of child marriage, making it more difficult to return to school once schools reopen.”
A declining figure, but not good news
Compared to 2024, when UNICEF estimated that nearly 250 million children—about one in seven—were affected in 85 countries, the 2025 figure shows a decrease. However, this figure should be interpreted with caution: the agency has changed its methodology, basing its analysis on information provided by humanitarian agencies and local media rather than on government data. The comparison between the two years, therefore, is not entirely comparable.
The Income Statement of the Future
In addition to the immediate impact, UNICEF estimates long-term consequences: inaction could result in at least $200 billion in lost lifetime earnings for students who have experienced climate-related school disruptions by 2025 alone. The agency links this figure directly to its call to governments and international partners: to invest more in building schools capable of withstanding extreme weather and environmental events, before the next cyclone or drought forces classrooms to close again.
