Ireland is the tenth best country in the world for children, according to a new report [1] from a key UN agency. 
The report, Child Well-Being in Rich Countries, was produced by Unicef, the UN agency for children.
The report measured children’s well-being in 29 countries in the developed world across five measures; material well-being, health and safety, educational well-being, behaviour and risks and housing and environment.
Ireland ranked lower than tenth on three measures, material well-being (17th), health and safety (15th) and educational well-being (17th).
However, we rank second on the measure of housing and environment and seventh on behaviour and risks.
Within the category of behaviour and risks, however, there is some significant variation.
For example, although we are ranked at one for the amount of exercise children here get, we rank at 20 for children being overweight.
In other behaviour categories, we have low rankings. For example, we rank 22 out of 29 for teenage births, and at 16 for the risk of children being bullied.
In the category of education, there is a similar disparity. Ireland is ranked at three for our level of third level participation but 29th for the percentage of young people classified as NEETs (not in education, employment, or training).
The report also shows that 86pc of children here are happy with their lives
The Netherlands, Norway, and Iceland are top of the list while bottom of the table are Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.
Ireland has a relatively low poverty rate at 8.5pc but those who do fall below the poverty line are poorer than in other countries, giving Ireland one of the largest poverty gaps.