Studies have found that children born and raised in Singapore have a better chance of growing up healthy, educated and protected, in comparison to other countries and past generations. Singapore has been placed first in a list of 176 countries ranked according to childhood protection, found in the third annual Global Childhood report by non-profit Save the Children. The End of Childhood Index assesses where children are missing out on childhood the most and scores each country out of 1000. Singapore had the highest score with 989, an increase from their 2000 score of 972. In 2017, the report stated that the under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births in Singapore was 2.8, among the lowest in the world. Along with this, there have been no records of malnourished children between 0 to 59 months, or children aged 5 to 17 engaged in child labour from 2013-2018. Subsequently, only 0.1 percent of children in Singapore were not attending primary or secondary school in that period. Sweden and Finland follow suit with second and third place respectively. The only other Asian country within the top 10 was South Korea, which was tied with Italy for eighth with 980.
Australia ranked 15th, Japan with 19th, and Malaysia took 71st to round off that region. The UK notched 22nd place, with the US and China trailing at 36th (tied). It was stated that 173 out of the 176 countries on the list are now doing better with giving their children full and stable childhoods compared to nine years ago. However, countries with armed conflict and widespread poverty still remain at the bottom of the list. These countries were the least likely to fully experience childhood, according to the organisation.
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