June 03, 2018
Tamariki poverty drives NZ rank down
The number of tamariki that die before age five and the highest teen suicide rate in the OECD has pushed New Zealand down to 28th in a new country ranking by Save the Children International.
The End of Childhood Report ranks 175 countries on how childhood may be threatened by factors such as poor health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, child marriage, early pregnancy and extreme violence.
New Zealand comes in behind Australia (17), the United Kingdom (22), Poland (25) and Greece (27). First place is shared by
Singapore and Slovenia share the top spot, and New Zealand is behind Australia at 17, the UK at 22 and one behind Greece.
Save the Children New Zealand CEO Heidi Coetzee says the report highlights how children from New Zealand’s poorest households are, on average twice as likely to die before the age of five as children from the richest households.
Maori and Pacific children and young people are more likely to die compared to children from other ethnic backgrounds, with poverty the key driver.
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