Growing up in a wealthy country with abundant resources does not a guarantee a happy, healthy childhood. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, children in some of the richest countries experienced significant declines in their academic performance, mental well-being and physical health. These troubling trends threaten to undermine the future potential and overall well-being of children.

The latest Innocenti Report Card 19 from UNICEF’s Global Office of Research and Foresight answers three core questions:

• How have children fared in the face of a rapidly changing and often unpredictable global environment?
• What are the key factors affecting children’s lives?
• What can be done to promote child well-being?

Download the report

Where do rich countries stand?

Each edition of the Innocenti Report Card series presents a league table that ranks countries on how they are doing on key aspects of child well-being. In this report, 43 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU) are ranked on children and adolescents’ mental well-being, physical health and skills.

The league table presents a diverse range of strengths and weaknesses. There is room for improvement in all countries, even those at the top of the rankings:

• The top three countries are the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Denmark and France and they also lead on mental health, physical health and skills.
   
• All of the bottom eight countries rank in the bottom third on at least two of the three dimensions.
   
• Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia rank high for mental health but rank in the lowest third for physical health. Japan, the Republic of Korea and Slovenia are in the top third rank for skills, but in the bottom third rank for mental health.
   
• Czechia and Iceland rank high for physical health but rank low for both mental health and skills.

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