| Ireland ninth in well-being list
IRELAND has been ranked ninth out of 21 industrialised countries
in a report assessing the well-being of children but Britain has come
in bottom of the list.
UNICEF said the assessment looked at 40 separate indicators to gauge the
quality of the lives of children in the majority of economically advanced
nations.
But the study found there was no consistent relationship between a country’s
wealth and a child’s quality of life.
Northern European countries dominated the top half of the table with child
well-being at its highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
Britain however came bottom of the list. The study found Britain lagged
behind on key measures of poverty and deprivation, health and safety,
relationships, risk-taking and young people’s own sense of well-being.
Britain received better ratings for education but languished in the bottom
third for all other measures, giving it the lowest overall placing behind
the United States.
Unicef UK executive director David Bull said all the countries had weaknesses
that needed to be addressed.
He said: “By comparing the performance of countries we see what
is possible with a commitment to supporting every child to fulfil his
or her full potential.”
The authors say they used the most up to date information available to
assess “whether children feel loved, cherished, special and supported,
within the family and community and whether the family and community are
being supported in this task by public policy and resources”.
But they added: “The process of international comparison can never
be freed from questions of translation, culture and custom.”
|
