As of 2019, child marriage affects about 765 million people; 650 million of them are girls or young women. There's no widely accepted definition of what child marriage is. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child says that in a child marriage, at least one of the people entering marriage has not reached age 18. Even though mosts states have a minimal age at which people can be married, this is often not respected. There may be cultural or religious reasons. Other reasons why someone is married as a child include that the parents want to make sure the girl is a virgin, when she gets married. Another reason may be that the family cannot afford the education or the upkeep of the child; when the child is married, there are no more costs to the family. Poverty is one of the main reasons for child marriage. 