{"id":13447,"date":"2016-04-14T08:33:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T13:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=13447"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:16","slug":"unicef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=13447","title":{"rendered":"New UNICEF report shows growing inequality among children in high income countries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Public
Public policy professor Ashu Handa (second from left) with UNICEF researchers based in Italy. (photo by Michelle Mills)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new UNICEF report presents evidence on how inequality affects children in high income countries.<\/p>\n

Innocenti Report Card 13, Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries, ranks 41 EU and OECD countries according to how far children at the bottom of the distribution fall below their peers in the middle. The report looks at bottom end inequality of income, educational achievement, self-reported health and life satisfaction.<\/p>\n

“The Report Card\u2019s focus on rich countries serves as a reminder that there is still significant child poverty in the world\u2019s wealthiest countries, and some of these countries do a much better job at addressing child poverty than others,” said Ashu Handa, a professor in the department of public policy in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences who is currently serving as Chief of Economic & Social Policy at UNICEF\u2019s Office of Research\u2014 Innocenti. He leads the research team at Innocenti responsible for developing the Report Card.<\/p>\n

Denmark is at the top of the overall league table with the lowest inequality among children. Israel ranked lowest across all domains.<\/p>\n

In 19 out of 41 countries covered by the data, more than 10 per cent of children live in households with less than half the median income.<\/p>\n

While inequality in children\u2019s self-reported health symptoms increased in almost all countries between 2002 and 2014, inequality in physical activity and poor diet decreased in a majority of countries.<\/p>\n

Bottom-end inequality has also narrowed in reading achievement in the majority of countries.<\/p>\n

When children rank their life satisfaction on a scale of 1 \u2013 10 the median score is 8; however, children at the lower end of the distribution fall far behind their peers. In every country, girls aged 13 and 15 report lower life satisfaction than boys.
\nInnocenti Report Card 13 proposes the following key areas for government action to strengthen child well-being:<\/p>\n