UNICEF report revealed children live in poverty also in rich countries

7 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

One in five children in rich countries lives in relative poverty, according to a UNICEF report published on Thursday that put the US and New Zealand among the world's worst performers for youth well-being.

The UN children's agency UNICEF has warned that its report should serve as a "wake-up call" to the high rate of children in rich countries living in relative poverty.
The report makes clear that "higher incomes do not automatically lead to improved outcomes for all children," said Sarah Cook, director of the UNICEF research center Innocenti. Cook called on all governments to take action in eliminating inequality in child welfare.

Nearly 13 percent of children in those countries lack access to sufficient safe and nutritious food, the report said, with that number rising to 20 percent in the US and UK.

The report, commissioned as part of the UN's sustainable development goals, examined the well-being of children across 41 countries that generally enjoy high average incomes.

The results varied greatly by country. Denmark, Iceland and Norway, where one in 10 children live in poverty, recorded the best results. By comparison, one-third of children live in relative poverty in Israel and Romania.
Overall, the countries that scored best for child well-being were the Nordic countries as well as Germany, Switzerland, South Korea, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

Southern and Eastern European states tended to see the highest rate of child poverty, as well as the Latin American countries.
In the US, meanwhile, 30 percent of children reportedly live in poverty, significantly above the 20 percent global average.

New Zealand performed particularly badly in terms of adolescent mental health, with the highest suicide rate in the world for people aged 15 to 19 – almost three times the average for the countries surveyed.

The number of adolescents reporting mental health problems is increasing in the majority of the countries included in the study, along with the rate of obesity among young people.

Even in Japan and Finland, among the best performing countries in the list, around a fifth of 15-year-olds do not reach baseline educational standards, the report said as it called for greater focus on disadvantaged groups.

Ireland is among a group, which includes German, Poland and South Korea, where more than 75% of 15-year-olds attained the basic level across three subjects, which the report said shows their national educational approaches are more successful than others in ensuring baseline competency.

The report also looked at adult employment rates, where growing up in a household where no adult works has been linked to a greater risk of experiencing poverty and poorer child well-being in terms of learning and bullying.

Around one child in seven lives in a jobless household in Bulgarian, Hungary, New Zealand, Spain and the UK and the results overall ranged from 2% of children in Japan living in such a household to 19% in Ireland.