Turkey last among OECD, EU countries in children's life satisfaction ranking

Click to read the article in Turkish

Only 53 percent of the children at 15 years of age have high life satisfaction in Turkey, according to a study released today (September 3) by UNICEF. 

The country ranked last among 41 countries where the survey was conducted while the Netherlands was the first with 90 percent. It was followed by Mexico with 86 percent and Romania with 85 percent.

The study entitled, "Worlds of Influence: Understanding What Shapes Child Well-being in Rich Countries" showed that issues such as poverty, exclusion, and pollution threaten children's mental well-being, physical health and opportunities to develop skills, according to UNICEF's Innocenti research center.

The study conducted in EU and OECD countries shows that Turkey has a high mortality rate for children aged between 5 and 14 with 1.96 per 1,000 children, a figure that is only exceeded by Mexico with 2.47 per 1,000 children.

The suicide rate in Turkey among adolescents aged between 15 and 19 is 2.4 per 100,000 people, the fifth-lowest among the 41 countries.

In terms of overweight and obesity, Turkey is in the middle of the list as 30 percent of the country's children aged between 5 and 19 are overweight.

Many 15-year-old children do not feel confident in their skills to make friends, according to the report. Romania tops the table with 83 percent and Chile is at the bottom with 68 percent in this category. Turkey is again in the middle rankings with 72 percent.

Turkey is the country where children are least frequently bullied as slightly more than 40 percent of the children in the country stated they were frequently bullied. However, the percentage of children who stated that they were not frequently bullied was also the lowest. (AÖ/VK)