Irish teenagers succeeding at school but struggling with life, UN study finds

Extra.ie​

15-05-2025

Irish teenagers are great at school but among the least happy in the developed world, a United Nations report has found.
The country is ranked fifth overall in a global league table of 'Child Wellbeing'.
The ranking is based on three areas: mental health, where Ireland ranks a lowly 24th; physical health, where we're ranked 11th; and skills, where the country tops the global league table. Pic: Getty Images
The study, conducted by UNICEF, used official data from 36 countries, making comparisons and offering analysis. Top of the list was the Netherlands, followed by Denmark, France and Portugal, with Ireland in fifth. Britain is ranked 21st and scores below Ireland on all three categories.
The report – Report Card 19: Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable World – compares the well-being of children across 43 OECD and EU countries.
According to the findings, one in three Irish 15-year-olds report low life satisfaction. Ireland's youth suicide rate was also found to be above the international average.
Unicef Ireland executive director Peter Power said: 'These findings are stark. Ireland's teens are succeeding in school but struggling in life. We must match our investment in academic achievement with the same urgency for mental and emotional wellbeing.'
The report gives no reason for the low level of 'life satisfaction'. Pic: Getty Images
It said: 'Analysing change from 2018 to 2022, the report found the Covid-19 pandemic had a marked negative impact on children's mental health as a result of school shutdowns and social isolation.
'Across 26 countries with available data, life satisfaction among adolescents declined in 22.'
More than one in four children and young teenagers were also found to be overweight or obese.
UNICEF Ireland has called on the Government to take targeted actions to protect child wellbeing, including increasing investment in school mental health services, improving school meals and strengthening digital resilience.
The report said: 'Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child wellbeing in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates.' Pic: Shutterstock
However, it added: 'The last five years have shown warning signs in deteriorating life satisfaction and falling academic skills in most countries. Obesity rates are also rising.'
The report shows that the hard-won progress in child wellbeing in this group of countries is becoming increasingly vulnerable to global events and shocks. The past five years have shown warning signs in deteriorating life satisfaction and falling academic skills in most countries.
The report also highlights the closeness between Irish children and their parents, revealing how often children's parents, or someone close to them, spent time just talking with them.
It points out that the frequency of talking with parents is strongly positively associated with life satisfaction. 'In all countries, more than half of children said that their parents spent time talking with them at least once a week, ranging from 53% in Japan to 91% in Ireland,' it said.
Ireland has the third-lowest child mortality rate among rich countries in the world, at six deaths per 10,000 children aged five to 14.
Across six indicators of child wellbeing from 2018 to 2022, Ireland's position improved in three of them – suicide, mortality and social – and was static in the remaining three: life satisfaction, overweight and academic. Its position did not deteriorate in any category, the study found.