KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Britain is ranked last for childhood quality of life among industrialised nations, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said in a report today.
The charity looked at 40 indicators to gauge the lives of children in 21 economically advanced nations, the first such study of its
kind.
The study found Britain lagged behind on key measures of poverty and deprivation, health and safety, relationships, risk-taking and young people's own sense of well-being.
Britain received better ratings for education but languished in the bottom third for all other measures, giving it the lowest overall placing, along with the United States.
Child well-being was rated highest in northern Europe, with the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark leading the list.
"All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions," said David Bull, Unicef UK's executive director.
The study found there was no consistent relationship between a country's wealth, as measured in gross domestic product per capita, and a child's quality of life.
The Czech Republic, for example, achieved a higher overall ranking than economically wealthier France.
"This report shows clearly that despite the UK's wealth, we are failing to give children the best possible start in life," said Colette Marshall, UK director of charity Save the Children.
She warned that "drastic action", including an injection of 4.5 billion pounds, was needed to meet a government target of halving the number of children in poverty by 2010.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Tony Blair's government said reforms introduced through the "Every Child Matters" initiative had helped to improve child welfare.
There were 700,000 fewer children living in relative poverty than in 1998/99, and the overall number living in absolute poverty had been halved, she said.
Albert Aynsley-Green, children's commissioner for England, acknowledged the government had made a significant investment in improving the lives of children but said the problems raised could not be solved by policy and funding alone.
"There is a crisis at the heart of our society and we must not continue to ignore the impact of our attitudes towards children and young people and the effect that this has on their well-being."
- REUTERS
