TORONTO – A new report finds that Canadian children rank in the bottom half for well-being when compared to other industrialized countries—a position that has not budged in 10 years.
Released on Wednesday, the report card from UNICEF measures the well-being of children in 29 of the world’s richest countries. The report aims to provide a snapshot of how well children are doing today when it comes to health and safety, education, behaviours and risks and housing and environment.
Overall, Canadian children ranked in 17th place out of 29 countries.
“The fact that our children rank in the bottom half when compared to other industrialized nations simply isn’t good enough,” says UNICEF Canada’s President and CEO David Morley.
Canada ranked 11th in housing and environment, 14th in education, 15th in material well-being, 16th in behaviours and risks and 27th in health and safety.
“It is clear Canada can do better. Protecting and promoting the well-being of our children must become a national priority.”
Is Canada one of the best places to raise a child?
The UNICEF report finds that while the country has made progress in the past ten years, Canada dropped seven places to 24 when children were asked to measure their views of their own life satisfaction.
“Listening to children’s voices, even at the youngest ages, and knowing more about how they see and evaluate their own lives is critical to improving children’s well-being,” says Morley.
Education and health
While Canadian children scored at the very top in the average of international reading, math and science literacy test scores, the country ranked in the bottom third—along with the United States and United Kingdom—on the rate of young people between the ages of 15 to 19 participating in further education.
In Canada, 28 per cent of children aged 11, 13 and 15 reported using cannabis in the past 12 months—the highest of any country. But less than five per cent of Canadian children in the same age categories reported smoking cigarettes at least once a week.
According to the report, Canada, Greece and the United States are the only three countries that have childhood obesity levels higher than 20 per cent—twice the rate of the top performing countries.
Bullying
Ranking in 21st place, the percentage of children who report being bullied at school in Canada was slightly higher than the average among industrialized countries.
REALITY CHECK: Bullying rates in Canada
The issue of bullying among children and teens was a topic of debate in Canada last year after the death of Amanda Todd—a British Columbia teen who committed suicide in October following years of Internet sexual exploitation and bullying by her peers.
How Canada can improve
According to UNICEF, Canada needs to provide a clearer picture of the investment being made in its children.
“Considering the size and general health of our economy when compared to the difficult recessions other countries in this report have experienced, it is clear Canada is not doing enough and needs to invest more in our children,” says Morley.
READ THE FULL REPORT
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