And once again, the Nordic countries are featuring on the top of Save the Children’s 16th annual Mothers’ Index that assesses the wellbeing of mothers and children in 179 countries. Unsurprisingly perhaps? It’s apparently great to be a mum in all the five Nordic countries!
Save the Children announces that Norway came 1st because it “has strong performance across all five dimensions of maternal and child health and wellbeing.” Included factors are maternal health, children’s well-being, education status, economic status and political status.
“Norway performs the absolute “best” on economic status and is the only country to place in the top 12 on all five indicators. It is consistently high performance that puts Norway on top,” it is stated.
Norway and the other four Nordic countries occupy the first five positions in Save the Children’s 179-country State of the World’s Mothers report for 2015:
1. Norway
2. Finland
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Sweden
And the Nordic countries keep competing in a league of their own; Norway jumped in front of last years number one, Finland. Iceland climbed one position, from its 2014 4th place, Denmark climbed two (6th in 2014) and Sweden dropped two (3rd last year).
When comparing, UK and USA both had higher lifetime risk of maternal death and mortality rate for under 5’s than the Nordic countries. The education level seemed to be fine but when measured on gross national income per capita as well as percentage of participation of women in national government both countries ended up with a lower ranking; UK got a 24th place and USA ended up on 33rd. To see the complete results and report, visit savethechildren.org
So why did we pack our bags and moved to United Kingdom with two young children in tow!?