The majority are found quickly, the age definition of 'child' is 18 and below and 'going missing' in many cases is simply a teenager who stays overnight at a friend's house after rowing with parents. Some 93 per cent of the children who go missing do not live in a two-parent household, and single children are more likely to run away than those with brothers and sisters.
Missing People, the charity that helps both the disappeared and those left behind, says that 250,000 missing persons reports each year – more than 30,000 higher than any previous total – is "probably an underestimate"; others put the total nearer 275,000. This means that one person goes missing every two minutes. The vast majority are swiftly found, or return of their own volition, but many don't. Some disappear for decades, and sources, including some inside the police, say the number of people in Britain who have been missing from family, friends and usual haunts for more than a year is at least 16,000 and could be as many as 20,000. Even more worryingly, at any one time, there are an estimated 1,000 unidentified bodies lying in the country's mortuaries and hospitals.
Sources: Independent, Guardian, Times.