Research: Finland provides for its children

A recent research carried out by University of York has carried out a screening of child wellbeing in Europe. Finland did very well for its children and ranked fifth. The European-wide research was based on data from 2006 and included 27 European Union countries. Also Norway and Iceland were included in the research.

The research commissioned by the British charity Child Poverty Action Group defined child wellbeing according to seven domains. They were: health, relationships with family and friends, material wellbeing, behaviour, education, living conditions and wellbeing as experienced by the children themselves. Finland excelled in providing children good living and environmental conditions, while our neighbouring country Sweden was estimated to provide its children better health.

The Netherlands came top of the table of overall child wellbeing, followed by Norway and Sweden. The UK came well below countries of similar affluence - only Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta did worse. The Nordic countries scored high points because of equality, accessibility of family services and GDP, the researchers comment.