A report classifying inequalities between children within countries places France at the back of the pack in Europe.
Inequalities are growing in France. As often, children are the first victims. A UNICEF report has just compared the quality of life of children among the poorest 10% to that of children in the middle class (as many richer families as poorer families). In France, this gap is one of the largest in the European Union and the OECD. On a global index, it ranks only 28e out of 35. It is worse than Latvia (11e), Malta (24e) or Romania (21e).
The results are worrying, in particular for school gaps (35e out of 37), health problems (23e out of 35), and life satisfaction (28e out of 35). With 9% of children living in poverty, France ranks 13e out of the 41 countries studied, either ahead of Sweden or the United States for example.
French children aged 11 to 15 are also 30% to report suffering from a daily health problem: head, back or stomach pain, dizziness, nervousness, depression, irritability, insomnia …
Denmark in the lead
“The problem is therefore not at the purely economic level, we can read in the report. Rather, it is an unequal deployment of services and resources to the detriment of the most vulnerable children, resulting in an accumulation of difficulties for them. “
Denmark takes first place because it has relatively low inequalities in all four areas of child well-being. Finland, Norway, Switzerland and Austria are also doing well. On the other side of the rankings, Turkey and Israel occupy the bottom.
To reduce these inequalities, UNICEF recommends protecting the income of households in which the poorest children live, focusing on improving school performance and promoting physical activity.
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