More than 1.2 billion children - over half of children worldwide – live in countries affected by widespread poverty, conflict and discrimination against girls, according to the 2018 End of Childhood Index published by the international organization Save the Children.

Romania ranks 54th among the 175 countries included in the 2018 edition of the report, down from the 52nd place the previous year. The country occupies the same place as Mauritius and Tonga, while doing worse than countries such as Bulgaria and Tunisia (both ranked 48th), Kazakhstan (45th), Ukraine (43rd) or China (40th).

Save the Children’s second annual End of Childhood Index compares the latest data for 175 countries and assesses where the most and fewest children are missing out on childhood. The report ranks the places where childhood is most and least threatened around the world. The top countries where childhood is least threatened are Singapore and Slovenia (both ranking first) and Norway and Sweden (both on the third place). Meanwhile, the countries where childhood is most threatened are Niger (at number 175), Mali (174) and the Central African Republic (173).

Romania is among the European countries with the highest under-5 mortality rate, with 9 deaths per 1,000 live births. By comparison, neighboring Bulgaria has a rate of 7.6 deaths per 1,000 live births while Hungary has a rate of 5.2.

Romania also has a high rate of adolescent births, with 34 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19. In Europe, only two states have a relatively more serious situation, namely Bulgaria and Georgia, with 36.8 and 38.3 births respectively. It is worrying that Romania has a higher rate of adolescent births than states such as Rwanda (25.6), Trinidad Tabago (30.8), United Arab Emirates (30.1), Uzbekistan (17.6), Albania (21.8), Bahamas (28.7), Botswana (31), Burundi (27.9), Djibouti (21), India (23.3) and Mauritius (28.3).

Also, the index shows that Romania is still not out of the risk zone when it comes to child marriages. 6.7% of the girls aged 15-19 in Romania are married or in union, the percentage being higher than in countries such as Albania, Ghana, Namibia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Jordan or Sri Lanka.

The full report is available here.

Half of children in Romania at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com