{"id":10497,"date":"2020-07-29T11:13:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T11:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=10497"},"modified":"2020-07-29T11:13:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T11:13:41","slug":"35-best-and-worst-countries-to-raise-a-family-you-wont-believe-americas-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/29\/35-best-and-worst-countries-to-raise-a-family-you-wont-believe-americas-ranking\/","title":{"rendered":"35 Best And Worst Countries To Raise A Family (You Won\u2019t Believe America\u2019s Ranking)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As if things couldn\u2019t get worse. According to a new study from the travel website Asher & Lyric<\/a>, the United States is the second worst place in the world to raise a family. The country came in at a shockingly low 34th place out of 35 countries, only beating out crime-ridden Mexico<\/a>. Topping the list of best places to raise a family were countries like Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland (which was recently named the happiest country in the world<\/a> for the third year in a row).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study has been eye-opening for me,\u201d says Los Angeles-based journalist Lyric Fergusson, who runs the site with her husband Asher and is a mother of two. \u201cEven as a well educated, thoughtful individual, I had become so numb to the country\u2019s inadequacies that I must have simply disregarded my personal experience for the rhetoric of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"US
In a new study, the US was named the second-worst place in the world to raise a family. getty<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The husband-wife journalists\u2014who are known for mapping out data-driven travel lists like the most dangerous places for women travelers<\/a> and the most dangerous places for gay travelers<\/a>\u2014created the Raising a Family Index to rank 35 countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). \u201cWe only used OECD countries because they have reliable data in a wide range of key topics useful for this study,\u201d notes Fergusson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To rank the most and least family-friendly countries, the journalists looked at 30 critical statistics from trusted international sources broken down into six categories that identify favorable conditions for raising a family, including safety, happiness, cost, health, education and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best country in the world in the Raising a Family Index: Iceland, which was also the safest country in the world and number four when it came to cost. (Sweden was the best priced country to raise a family.) \u201cIceland achieved top-10 rankings in all categories and was number one in safety,\u201d says Fergusson, who points out that Iceland is also a world leader in human rights. \u201cNo matter the origins of a child or who they turn out to be, Iceland\u2019s constitution ensures they will be treated unequivocally as an equal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Iceland
Iceland was named the best country to raise a family. getty<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mexico came in at the bottom of the list as the worst country to raise a family. The country ranked poorly in categories like safety (it was the most dangerous in the world), health (the worst), education (also the worst) and happiness (the fifth least happy country).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the United States didn\u2019t fare much better, coming in at the bottom of the list at number 34, barely above Mexico. Fergusson says that she was surprised by the results and couldn\u2019t believe what she saw when she reviewed the data. \u201cI went one-by-one into each of the six categories,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat I discovered, in many instances, was quite shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safety severely impacted the United States\u2019s ranking. According to the data, it was the second-worst after Mexico. \u201cThe US has 6.12 reported homicides per 100,000 (bested only by Mexico), whereas most countries on our list are around one or less,\u201d says Fergusson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US also scored poorly in the human rights category, coming in at fourth worst. \u201cOur systemic racism is just one example, which has been recently exposed during the Black Lives Matter protests,\u201d says Fergusson. \u201cIt has become strikingly clear that people of color do not feel safe in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cost was another contributing factor. \u201cThe US gets an F in our cost section,\u201d says Fergusson. In the overall cost index, the US placed last, performing twice as poorly as New Zealand, which finished just ahead of the US. \u201cParents with average household income have to spend 31.79% of their income on childcare costs alone,\u201d says Fergusson. \u201cCompare that to Scandinavian countries, where households only have to spend 4% to 10% of household income to raise a well-rounded child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One shocking fact that the journalists uncovered: \u201cAmerican mothers are twice as likely to die in childbirth here as in Canada\u2014even though it will cost us three times as much for a standard hospital birth,\u201d says Fergusson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also sobering: America ranked worst for time. \u201cAmericans work very long hours per year with zero government-mandated paid maternity, paternity, sick leave or vacation time,\u201d says Fergusson. \u201cNo other country in our study gives zero paid maternity leave or zero paid vacation time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US also ranked poorly in happiness: The journalists point out that one in five Americans suffer from mental health issues each year and the suicide rate has increased by 33% between 1999 to 2017. And the country ranked poorly in education (it\u2019s the 12th worst country) and health (it\u2019s the eighth worst country).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fergusson says that the study led her to the conclusion that America is a deeply challenged and troubled country\u2014but she has hope. \u201cMy aspiration is that something will substantially change in my children\u2019s lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"USA
In a new study, the US was named the second-worst place in the world to raise a family. getty<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Read on for the list of the 35 best and worst places in the Raising a Family Index. You can see entire list and read more about the rankings here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best and Worst Countries for Raising a Family<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Iceland<\/li>
  2. Norway<\/li>
  3. Sweden<\/li>
  4. Finland<\/li>
  5. Luxembourg<\/li>
  6. Denmark<\/li>
  7. Germany<\/li>
  8. Austria<\/li>
  9. Belgium<\/li>
  10. Czech Republic<\/li>
  11. Netherlands<\/li>
  12. Portugal<\/li>
  13. France<\/li>
  14. Australia<\/li>
  15. Slovenia<\/li>
  16. Ireland<\/li>
  17. Spain<\/li>
  18. New Zealand<\/li>
  19. Canada<\/li>
  20. Poland<\/li>
  21. Hungary<\/li>
  22. Switzerland<\/li>
  23. United Kingdom<\/li>
  24. Italy<\/li>
  25. Japan<\/li>
  26. Israel<\/li>
  27. Slovak Republic<\/li>
  28. Korea<\/li>
  29. Greece<\/li>
  30. Romania<\/li>
  31. Bulgaria<\/li>
  32. Turkey<\/li>
  33. Chile<\/li>
  34. United States<\/li>
  35. Mexico<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As if things couldn\u2019t get worse. According to a new study from the travel website Asher & Lyric, the United States is the second worst place in the world to raise a family. The country came in at a shockingly low 34th place out of 35 countries, only beating out crime-ridden Mexico. Topping the list […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/American-Family.jpg?fit=1026%2C382&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}