Launching Stolen Childhoods: 2017 End of Childhood Report

Thursday 1 June 2017

Vietnamese children experience better childhoods than most of its neighbours, according to new report, but children from minority groups left behind

 Vietnam is 92nd in a global ranking of the best and worst countries for children to grow up, putting it ahead of neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, a new report from Save the Children reveals.

 The mid-table ranking offers promise for Vietnam, which has made strong economic and development progress in recent years, however, children from minority groups in Vietnam are still having their childhoods cut short in large numbers.

 Launched to coincide with International Children's Day, Stolen Childhoods examines countries on a range of indicators related to childhood. Vietnam performed poorest on child stunting, which affects 1 in 4 children under 5 across the country, while 13 percent of children are out of school and 16 percent are involved in child labour.

 Stolen Childhood’s index of 172 countries ranked Vietnam as the 92nd best country overall for children to experience childhood, ahead of the Philippines (96), Cambodia (117) and Laos (130), but behind China (41), Malaysia (65) and Thailand (84). Meanwhile Norway and Slovenia topped the index, with Niger ranking last.

Globally, the report found that at least 700 million children – and possibly hundreds of millions more – have had the promise of a full childhood brought to an early end

Please visit our official campaign site: endofchildhood.org