It's not about money

Unicef has just released a report of a study made of the well-being of children in wealthy countries. There was not enough data on some wealthy countries, such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, so that children in only twenty-one countries were studied. The authors acknowledge the study's limitations, but feel that it is a good indication of reality.

The study looked at kids over six 'dimensions':

1. Material well-being - how many live in homes with incomes in the lower half, without a working adult, with few educational resources, with fewer than ten books.
2. Health and safety - infant deaths per 1000 births, percent with low birth weight, percent not immunized against measles, DPT and polio, deaths from accidents and injuries.
3. Educational well-being - average achievement in reading, math and science, percent of teenagers in school, percent not doing anything (work or school), percent expecting to find low-skilled work.
4. Family and peer relationships - percent living in single parent families, percent eating the main meal with parents more than once a week, percent reporting parents spend time with them, percent who find their peers kind and helpful.
5. Behaviors and risks - percent who eat a daily breakfast and fruit, percent physically active, percent obese, percent who smoke, have gotten drunk, use dope, have sex by 15, use condoms, involved in fights, being bullied.
6. Subjective well-being - percent rating health fair or less, percent feeling negative about themselves.

The authors conclude that kids in the Northern European countries - Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland - fare best when measured along the above dimensions. Britain's kids fare worst, just behind those of the U.S. Surprisingly, we rank low in health and safety. Less surprisingly, we also rank low in family and peer relationships and behaviors and risks. Our best rating is in educational well-being, where we rank twelfth.