A new UNICEF report on children’s well-being in rich countries found that the UK and the US are the worst places to grow up while northern European countries are the most children-friendly.

American and British youngsters have a more troublesome childhood than their European counterparts, according to a United Nations study presented in Berlin on Wednesday. They’re poorer, get on worse with their parents and take more risks. In comparison with children living in other rich countries, those growing up in the USA and the UK have the lowest quality of life, the study says.

The UNICEF report compared the level of children’s well-being in 21 economically advanced countries. Despite being among the richest, Britain and the USA occupied the last two places in the list, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark taking the top three slots.

The findings suggest that national wealth does not correspond directly to quality of childhood: the Czech Republic, for example, outranked richer countries like the USA, Japan or Germany.

The level of children’s well-being was assessed through measuring six factors: Material well-being; health and safety; education; peer and family relations; behaviors and risks; and self-perceived subjective well-being. Although northern European countries like the Netherlands did well on the overall score, “all countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed,” said David Bull, director of UNICEF UK. “No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions,” he said, referring to the factors considered.
Read more at Spiegel