Singapore is the world’s best country for children to grow up in, says NGO report
Singapore jumps 33 places from last year in Save the Children’s End of Childhood Index
By Chen Lin
The report on 175 countries saw Singapore faring well across the eight indicators: Under-five mortality rate, child stunting, out-of-school children and youth, child labour, child marriage, adolescent birth rate, population displaced by conflict, and child homicide rate.
Singapore scored 987 points out of a possible 1,000 in the report’s End of Childhood Index, and performed particularly well in areas such as adolescent birth rate, with only 3.8 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, as compared the world’s average at 50.4.
Singapore, which finished in top spot ahead of European countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland, also scored higher than the world’s average for under-five mortality rate.
This is a significant jump in rankings from last year, when Singapore was ranked 33rd. However, Save the Children clarified that there were some inconsistencies with the data sources used in its inaugural report in 2017. Their methodology has since been rectified for greater accuracy, said the NGO.