UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight compares data on children’s wellbeing, health and academia from 2018 and 2022.
A new research publication from UNICEF gives insight into how children in 43 OECD and EU countries have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report raises concerns about children’s mental heath, physical health and academic performance. “It shows that across the 43 OECD/EU countries, children are becoming less happy with their lives, more likely to be overweight and obese, and not doing well in school.” 1
The report includes a country ranking of child wellbeing, looking at three factors: mental health, physical health and skills. It has ranked the countries from 1-36 (a few gave incomplete data so couldn’t be ranked) based on their average across these three factors.
The top three countries in the table are:
- The Netherlands: ranked 1st for mental health, 4th for physical health and 11th for skills
- Denmark: ranked 3rd for mental health, 3rd for physical health and 8th for skills
- France: ranked 11th for mental health, 2nd for physical health and 9th for skills
The bottom 3 countries in the table are:
- Chile: ranked 31st for mental health, 40th for physical health and 40th for skills
- Türkiye: ranked 35th for mental health, 37th for physical health and 37th for skills
- Mexico: ranked 19th for mental health, 41st for physical health and 41st for skills 1
Key statistics
A few key statistics from the report include:
- Children are estimated to be an average of seven months to a year behind academically (due to learning loss from school shutdowns of 3-12 months).
- Setbacks were worse for children from disadvantaged families.
- Half of 15 year olds (8 million) assessed were not functionally literate or numerate.
- 14 out of 32 countries had a substantial decline in life satisfaction. Japan was the only country with marked improvement in mental health.
- Overweight children increased substantially in 14 of 43 countries (part of a long-term trend).
- Life satisfaction fell substantially among 15-year old children.
- Girls experienced a higher decrease in life satisfaction than boys.
- Suicide rates are substantially higher among boys.
- Social and emotional skills remain fairly stable.
- Child mortality saw sustained progress on average but the risk is still higher for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. 1, 2
References
- UNICEF Global Office of Research and Insight (2025) ‘Child Well-Being in an Unpredictable World: Innocenti Report Card 19’. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/child-well-being-unpredictable-world#report (Accessed: 15 May 2025)
- UNICEF (2025) ‘Children’s wellbeing in world’s wealthiest countries took sharp turn for the worse in wake of COVID-19 pandemic – UNICEF’. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/childrens-wellbeing-worlds-wealthiest-countries-took-sharp-turn-worse-wake-covid-19 (Accessed: 15 May 2025)
