As if things couldn’t 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 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 for the third year in a row).
“This study has been eye-opening for me,” says Los Angeles-based journalist Lyric Fergusson, who runs the site with her husband Asher and is a mother of two. “Even as a well educated, thoughtful individual, I had become so numb to the country’s inadequacies that I must have simply disregarded my personal experience for the rhetoric of the nation.”
The husband-wife journalists—who are known for mapping out data-driven travel lists like the most dangerous places for women travelers and the most dangerous places for gay travelers—created the Raising a Family Index to rank 35 countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “We only used OECD countries because they have reliable data in a wide range of key topics useful for this study,” notes Fergusson.
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.
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.) “Iceland achieved top-10 rankings in all categories and was number one in safety,” says Fergusson, who points out that Iceland is also a world leader in human rights. “No matter the origins of a child or who they turn out to be, Iceland’s constitution ensures they will be treated unequivocally as an equal.”
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).
But the United States didn’t 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’t believe what she saw when she reviewed the data. “I went one-by-one into each of the six categories,” she says. “What I discovered, in many instances, was quite shocking.”
Safety severely impacted the United States’s ranking. According to the data, it was the second-worst after Mexico. “The US has 6.12 reported homicides per 100,000 (bested only by Mexico), whereas most countries on our list are around one or less,” says Fergusson.
The US also scored poorly in the human rights category, coming in at fourth worst. “Our systemic racism is just one example, which has been recently exposed during the Black Lives Matter protests,” says Fergusson. “It has become strikingly clear that people of color do not feel safe in America.”
Cost was another contributing factor. “The US gets an F in our cost section,” 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. “Parents with average household income have to spend 31.79% of their income on childcare costs alone,” says Fergusson. “Compare that to Scandinavian countries, where households only have to spend 4% to 10% of household income to raise a well-rounded child.”
One shocking fact that the journalists uncovered: “American mothers are twice as likely to die in childbirth here as in Canada—even though it will cost us three times as much for a standard hospital birth,” says Fergusson.
Also sobering: America ranked worst for time. “Americans work very long hours per year with zero government-mandated paid maternity, paternity, sick leave or vacation time,” says Fergusson. “No other country in our study gives zero paid maternity leave or zero paid vacation time.”
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’s the 12th worst country) and health (it’s the eighth worst country).
Fergusson says that the study led her to the conclusion that America is a deeply challenged and troubled country—but she has hope. “My aspiration is that something will substantially change in my children’s lifetime.”
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.
Best and Worst Countries for Raising a Family
- Iceland
- Norway
- Sweden
- Finland
- Luxembourg
- Denmark
- Germany
- Austria
- Belgium
- Czech Republic
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- France
- Australia
- Slovenia
- Ireland
- Spain
- New Zealand
- Canada
- Poland
- Hungary
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- Italy
- Japan
- Israel
- Slovak Republic
- Korea
- Greece
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Turkey
- Chile
- United States
- Mexico
