Irish children’s quality of life among top 10

Irish children’s quality of life is amongst the 10 best in the developed world, according to a Unicef league table of child wellbeing.

Children here exercise more than children in the 28 other industrialised countries with Irish children, aged, 11, 13, and 15, most likely of all countries to take part in vigorous exercise for one hour a day.

Smoking rates amongst young Irish teenagers are also the sixth lowest of all countries and when it comes to teen drinking, the country is mid-table. Teenage pregnancies have dropped modestly.

The countries were evaluated on material wellbeing, health and safety, behaviours and risk, education, and housing and environment. The best countries for children to live in are the Netherlands, followed by Norway and then Iceland and Finland. Sweden comes fifth and Germany sixth.

The bottom four places in the table are occupied by three of the poorest countries in the survey, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania, and by one of the richest, the United States.

It showed Irish children live in some of the best quality and roomiest homes in Europe and our children also have the second best air quality of all the countries analysed. Irish parents’ relationships with their children compare well internationally but 83% of children find it easy to talk to their mother whereas this figure drops to 68% when it comes to talking to their fathers.

However, Ireland is one of five countries in the research where bullying has risen.

The report card is the result of research carried out between 2001 and 2010 across the countries and it shows that while Ireland has a relatively low child poverty rate of 8.5%, it is one of eight countries where children are living up to 30% below the average child poverty line. Other countries in this bracket include Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and the US.

Ireland has the third highest percentage of 15 to 19-year-olds who are in education but our teenagers are mid-table when it comes to educational achievement.

Fifteen-year-olds are only scoring average in international standardised maths, reading and science tests.

However, Ireland also has the highest number of 15 to 19-year-olds not in education, training or employment ranking eighth from the bottom with just Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Australia, Malta, New Zealand, and Bulgaria lagging behind.

This suggests that there is a sizeable cohort of young people who are falling between the cracks, dropping out of school but with no plans of what to do next.