In a sweeping report on the issue, the United Nations agency detailed the heart-wrenching stories of some of the children affected, and co-author Laura Healy told AFP the data only revealed the "tip of the iceberg," with many more likely affected.
But UNICEF worked with the non-governmental Internal Displacement Monitoring Center to unpick the data and reveal the hidden toll on children. The figures do not allow for a distinction between those evacuated before a weather event, and those forced to leave in the wake of a disaster. Healy says children, including those already forced to move, must be prepared "to live in a climate change world."
But in proportional terms, Africa and small island nations are most at risk -- in Dominica, 76 percent of all children were displaced from 2016 to 2021. For Cuba and Saint-Martin, that figure was more than 30 percent.