Children and Young People Bereaved of a Parent: A Global Research Library

3 studiesHow many children, and how we know

• How many children, and how we know How Many Children Have a Parent Die Each Year? Few Countries Count → Sweden counted 2,717 children in 2025; the UK estimates about 46,300 and the US about 407,000. Most countries have no figure. With sources.
• How many children, and how we know Nobody Counts Them: The Missing Official Data on Bereaved Children Worldwide → Most countries record a parent's death but not the children left behind; only register countries like Sweden can count them. With sources.
• How many children, and how we know Which children, and why: the ages of bereaved children and the causes of their parents’ deaths → Most children whose parent dies are older children and teenagers, and more have a father die than a mother. Causes differ by country. With sources.

3 studiesEducation

• Education School Grades After a Parent Dies: What Research Around the World Shows → Children whose parent has died leave school with lower grades on average, but much of the gap reflects family circumstances. Evidence from 10 countries. With sources.
• Education Do Schools Know What to Do When a Parent Dies? Policies and Training Worldwide → Denmark and Norway report bereavement plans in almost all surveyed daycare settings; elsewhere, surveys find most school staff untrained and many unaware of a policy. With sources.
• Education Missing School After a Parent Dies: Attendance, Dropout and Leaving Early → No country we found counts bereaved pupils' absence or exclusions. Where leaving education is measured, a parent's death is linked to higher risk, and practical support lowers it. With sources.

4 studiesHealth and wellbeing

• Health and wellbeing Mental Health After a Parent Dies in Childhood: What Population Studies Show → Grief is not an illness and most bereaved children never develop one, but a parent's death goes with a modestly raised risk of later mental health conditions. With sources.
• Health and wellbeing Prolonged grief disorder in children: a new diagnosis, and how little is known → A 2024 review found just five studies of how common prolonged grief disorder is in bereaved children, with estimates of 10.4% to 32%. Most children's grief eases. With sources.
• Health and wellbeing The parent who is left: why the surviving parent's wellbeing matters → A surviving parent's warmth and own mental health protect bereaved children, and support for parents helps both, but few countries measure how they are doing. With sources.
• Health and wellbeing Physical Health and Mortality After a Parent Dies in Childhood: The Evidence → In Nordic registers, children whose parent died had 1.5 times the death rate of peers, yet absolute risks are small and many illnesses show little difference. With sources.

6 studiesCircumstances of the death

• Circumstances of the death 10.5 Million Children Bereaved by COVID-19: What the Global Evidence Shows → An estimated 10.5 million children had a parent or caregiver die of COVID-19 by May 2022. Almost all figures are models, not counts, and few children were followed up. With sources.
• Circumstances of the death When a parent dies by suicide: what is known about the children → No statistics office checked counts children bereaved by a parent's suicide. Registers show raised relative risks but rare serious outcomes; support is barely evaluated. With sources.
• Circumstances of the death Bereaved by drug and alcohol deaths: the children behind the statistics → An estimated 321,566 US children had a parent die of an overdose in 2011-2021. Scotland counts these children; for alcohol deaths, nobody does. With sources.
• Circumstances of the death Children bereaved by homicide: what the evidence shows → Few countries count children whose parent is killed. In France, 114 were bereaved by killings within a couple in 2023. Evidence worldwide on their needs and support. With sources.
• Circumstances of the death Bereaved Military Children: Deaths in Service and the Support Around Them → Children whose parent dies in military service are young, and US data show diagnoses rising sharply after the death, yet we found no country that publishes a count of them. With sources.
• Circumstances of the death Sudden or Expected: How the Way a Parent Dies Shapes What Children Need → Children face higher long-term risks after a parent's death from external causes such as accidents, but expected deaths bring their own strain, and many children are unprepared. With sources.

8 studiesSupport and services

• Support and services What Helps Bereaved Children? The Evidence on Support, and Its Limits → Support helps bereaved children most clearly when they are already struggling; average effects of support for all are small, and the evidence is thin. With sources.
• Support and services Where you live matters: differences in children's bereavement services → Almost no country maps children's bereavement support by area. Where it has been mapped, services cluster unevenly and do not follow need. With sources.
• Support and services Who gets support? Access to bereavement services for bereaved children worldwide → No country counts how many bereaved children get support. Consultations and service surveys point to unmet need and stretched services; few laws name these children. With sources.
• Support and services Waiting for Help: No Country Measures How Long Bereaved Children Wait → No country publishes waiting times for children's bereavement support. Service policies, surveys and child mental health data show what can be seen. With sources.
• Support and services Before a Parent Dies: How Hospices and Palliative Care Reach Children → Services caring for a dying parent often miss their children: 22% of UK hospices surveyed had no formal process to record them, and many teenagers are never told death is near. With sources.
• Support and services Young Carers Whose Parent Dies: No Country We Found Counts Them → Censuses now count young carers, but we found no country that counts those bereaved of the person they cared for. What the evidence shows. With sources.
• Support and services Bereavement among young people in the justice system → Most young people in custody studies had been bereaved, and a parent's death was far more common than in teenagers generally. Small studies, rarely met need. With sources.
• Support and services Bereavement Among Children in Care and Kinship Care: What the Data Show → Children in care are far more likely to have a parent who has died, yet a parent's death is rarely recorded as the reason they entered care. With sources.

4 studiesFamilies, money and culture

• Families, money and culture State support for bereaved children: who is paid, for how long, and who misses out → Norway, Sweden and the US pay bereaved children their own benefit to 18-20; Great Britain pays the parent for 18 months. Who misses out, and why. With sources.
• Families, money and culture When a brother or sister dies: what the research shows about bereaved siblings → Sibling death is common worldwide, and Nordic registers link it to higher death rates and mental health problems decades later. With sources.
• Families, money and culture The Money Side of Grief: Income, Funeral Costs and Debt After a Parent Dies → A parent's death often brings lost income and a large funeral bill, but we found no country that counts poverty among bereaved families with children. With sources.
• Families, money and culture Faith, Culture and Grief: What Research Shows About Bereaved Children → Families mourn in very different ways, but grief research comes mostly from Western, high-income populations, and children from other cultures are rarely studied. With sources.

3 studiesUnderstanding the evidence

• Understanding the evidence Reading the Evidence: Registers, Cohorts and Surveys on Bereaved Children → Only a few countries can count children whose parent has died; most figures, including the UK's and US's, are modelled. A guide to each kind of evidence. With sources.
• Understanding the evidence How Countries Support Bereaved Children: Laws, Schools and Services Compared → Norway and Sweden write bereaved children into health law; most countries rely on voluntary services and cannot count the children. A global comparison. With sources.
• Understanding the evidence How Children Understand Death at Different Ages: What the Research Says → Children grasp death in parts, with most children studied understanding the core ideas between about 4 and 7. Evidence from a dozen countries. With sources.