2010 UNICEF Report on The Children Left Behind

UNICEF's new report, The Children Left Behind, reveals that the United States ranks among the worst of 24 of the world’s richest nations when it comes to child well-being.

To quote from Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."


Quotes from the report:

• Using gross (pre-tax) household income, the income available to the child at the 10th percentile in the United States is approximately 70% below the income available to a child at the median.

• The heaviest costs are paid by the individual child. But the long list of problems cited above also translates into significant costs for society as a whole. 

• Unnecessary bottom-end inequality prepares a bill which is quickly presented to taxpayers in the form of increased strain on health and hospital services, on remedial schooling, on welfare and social protection programmes, and on the police and the courts.