Warning: This story contains disturbing images.
The image of a lifeless 3-year-old Syrian boy, facedown on a Turkish beach, went around the world this week -- a devastating reminder of the plight of those fleeing a brutal war.
And Aylan Kurdi is just one of many.
A UNHCR spokesperson said the total number of registered Syrian refugees who are children is nearly two million, and more than one million of those children are younger than 12. Many have fled to neighboring nations.
Complete moral bankruptcy: Migrant crisis escalates as dead children wash up on beach http://t.co/G4sAesLnQf #Europe pic.twitter.com/n9xJBKKuhK— Fernando Espuelas (@EspuelasVox) September 3, 2015
According to the United Nation's refugee agency UNHCR, of the 2.1 million Syrian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries and been registered in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan or Lebanon, more than one million are younger than 18, and around 808,000 of the refugees are under the age of 12.
While the UNHCR doesn't have demographic data for the estimated 1.9 million Syrian refugees currently registered in Turkey, a representative with the organization said the age breakdown is probably similar.
"I think it's quite normal in refugee populations to have a high percentage of women and children," Ariane Rummery, a senior communications officer with UNHCR who focuses on Syria and Iraq, told Mashable. She said men often stay home to try to look after the family's livelihood, and many die in conflict.
While statistics surrounding the Syrian refugee population in Europe are less clear, around 16,300 Syrians under the age of 18, and around 12,000 under the age of 14 have applied for asylum in the European Union this year, according to Eurostat data.
An additional 7.6 million Syrians were displaced inside their own country as of July, 2015, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, half of them children.
Around the world, millions of children have lost their home and as many as 13 million kids fleeing conflict across the Middle East and Africa have been forced from school, creating the potential for what UNICEF has called a possible "lost generation."
Around 9,000 schools in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen have been destroyed or damaged beyond use, taken over by warring parties, or packed with refugees who have nowhere else to go.
Children who have escaped from war-torn nations often find that schools in their new homes have no room for them. Around 700,000 students in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have been left outside the classroom for this reason.