Child Well-Being in an Unpredictable World

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Growing up in a wealthy country with abundant resources does not a guarantee a happy, healthy childhood. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, children in some of the richest countries experienced significant declines in their academic performance, mental well-being and physical health. These troubling trends threaten to undermine the future potential and overall well-being of children.

The latest Innocenti Report Card 19 from UNICEF’s Global Office of Research and Foresight answers three core questions:

• How have children fared in the face of a rapidly changing and often unpredictable global environment?
• What are the key factors affecting children’s lives?
• What can be done to promote child well-being?

Report Card 19: Child Wellbeing in an Unpredictable World compares data from 2018 and 2022, offering a perspective on how the COVID-19 pandemic and global shutdowns affected children in 43 OECD and EU countries. Since the last comparable Report Card five years ago, the Netherlands and Denmark retained their rankings as the top two places to be a child, based on measures of mental wellbeing, physical health, and skills, followed by France. 

The report goes on to analyse data on children’s physical health, noting that levels of overweight increased substantially in 14 out of 43 countries with available data, continuing a long-term trend. On this indicator, Bulgaria is one of the worst performers, ranking 34th out of 41 countries. Almost one in three children in Bulgaria is overweight. The proportion of 29.2% is higher than the average for the countries in the study (27.8%) and represents a slight increase compared to 2018 (27.6%).

However, the report warns many countries experienced sharp declines in children’s academic skills following the pandemic – particularly foundational abilities such as reading and mathematics. School shutdowns of between three and 12 months forced many children to learn remotely and led to learning losses. The extent to which children are behind where they should be academically is estimated to be between seven months and one year, on average, the report says. Setbacks were most severe for children from disadvantaged families. In terms of academic skills, Bulgaria ranks last - only 3 other countries have a lower score – Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico.
The aggregate data for Bulgaria shows that life satisfaction, obesity and academic skills of Bulgarian children have deteriorated compared to the previous Report 16.  A positive trend is the reduction in child mortality and the improvement in children's self-reported social skills. Our country ranks 28th out of 36 countries in the overall ranking on the six indicators of child well-being.