DATA missing conference calls for robust, comparable data mechanisms for missing children across Europe unites EU policymakers, child rights NGOs, and frontline workers

Brussels, 3 June 2025 – Today, over 70 child rights advocates, EU policymakers, law enforcement officers and frontline workers gathered in the heart of the EU for one reason – to improve data collection on children who go missing across Europe.
Each year, an estimated 250,000 children go missing across Europe — that’s one child every two minutes. Despite this alarming figure, the EU still lacks a coordinated and sustainable approach to collecting and reporting data on missing children, leaving critical gaps in Member State and local authorities’ ability to protect them.
The reasons why children go missing are many and complex. Some children run away. Others are abducted, or forced to flee violence, abuse, or exploitation, as Aagje Ieven, the Secretary-General of Missing Children Europe, explains.
“Without reliable, disaggregated data, it is impossible to develop evidence-based policies to identify these risk factors and protect children. But beyond that, without a basic and shared understanding among Member States of when a child is officially considered missing, we cannot even determine how many children go missing every year, and we cannot build common frameworks. The EU urgently needs harmonised, comparable data to move from awareness to action, and above all, to uncover the true scale of the issue of children going missing.”
It was this gap in data collection that led to the DATA MISSING project, a groundbreaking initiative committed to improving what we know about missing children, and empowering policymakers and practitioners with better data to better prevent and respond to disappearances.
What is DATA MISSING?
The DATA MISSING project is the first that provides such a comprehensive overview of how data concerning missing children is collected within member states, while identifying gaps in and inconsistencies between those systems.
One of the key gaps they’ve identified is the lack of standardised definitions and data collection practices concerning missing children within and between national systems, hotlines, police, and NGOs across Europe. This makes it challenging to truly understand how widespread this problem is, and to effectively prevent children from going missing.
In response to this, the DATA MISSING project is calling for the establishment of harmonised data collection practices around missing children across all EU member states. More specifically, they stress the need for annual, comparable statistics on the number of children reported missing, which would serve as a foundation for better policymaking and prevention strategies.
Momentum for the establishment of such practices was palpable during a conference organised by Missing Children Europe earlier today, joined by thought leaders and frontline workers across civil society, police, and EU Commission officials. This includes Chrisoula Arcoudis, national expert on child rights with the EU Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice. She had this to say:
“Reliable, detailed, and harmonised data is an effective tool when building integrated and inclusive child protection systems across Europe. When we fail to capture the realities of all children—especially those who go missing—we create blind spots in our systems. Strengthening data practices is not just about numbers; it’s about ensuring every child counts and is counted.”
Even with these blind spots, there are organisations striving to understand the realities of missing children– Missing Children Europe’s most recent Figures & Trends report on the cases reported to the European 116000 hotlines for missing children network, delves deeper into the drivers and responses to more than 6,000 new cases reported to the hotlines network in 2024. While the report only concerns a fraction of the total, it does give key insights into the reasons and ways in which children go missing.
The DATA MISSING conference not only presented the results of the research but also issued a formal challenge to EU institutions, national governments, and child protection stakeholders – Europe must support Member States to invest in sustainable data systems and standardised indicators to prevent, respond to, and reduce the number of children who go missing.
- Access the photos of the Conference here
READ OUR REPORTS:
Final report for DATA MISSING: Download here
Data & statistics for missing children in 2024: Download here