British teenagers among world's unhappiest

Telegraph

14-05-2025

British teenagers are among the most dissatisfied in the world, according to a global report.
The UK ranks near the bottom of a league table for child wellbeing and teenage happiness, the Unicef study revealed.
The research compared scores across a range of metrics between 2018 and 2022 and found children across the globe were now more likely to underperform at school, be obese and feel unhappy than they were several years ago.
When compared with other high-income countries, the UK ranked joint second-last when it came to the percentage of teenagers reporting high life satisfaction, falling from 64 per cent to 62 per cent.
Girls were also much more likely than boys to be dissatisfied, the researchers found.
The UK was level with Chile and it was only in Turkey where unhappiness with life was higher.
The UK also ranked 21st out of 36 for child wellbeing, while countries such as France, Spain and Portugal rank near the top.
Romania, Slovakia, Lithuania and Hungary also rank above the UK, while the Netherlands and Finland retain their position as the top two places to be a child.
Elsewhere, the UK was in the bottom third of countries on child mental health, placing 27th out of 36.
The report found that the frequency that children talked to their parents had a strong positive link with satisfaction, while the frequency of being bullied had a major negative effect.
Researchers said rates of frequent bullying 'remain high' in the UK, which had the third highest rates of bullying among high income countries. Some 27 per cent of 15-year-olds experienced frequent bullying in both 2018 and 2022.
The UK youth suicide rate has also increased, rising from a three-year average of four per 100,000 teenagers aged 15 to 19 in 2018 to 5.12 in 2022.
The UK was mid-table on physical health and social skills and academic proficiency, ranking 22nd and 15th out of 41, respectively.
Furthermore, more than 30 per cent of British children were overweight in 2022, above the rich-country average of 28 per cent.
And toddlers were more likely than anywhere else to get the majority of their calories from ultra-processed food.
Between the ages of two and five, the average UK toddler gets 61 per cent of their calories from ultra-processed food, the report said, much higher than children in other countries, including the US.
There is also a higher proportion of sugar in infant food pouches in the UK than other countries, and 'persistent marketing' of unnecessary toddler/growing-up milks, which are high in sugars.
Overall, the Unicef 'report card' found that children in many of the world's wealthiest countries have seen a decline in their mental wellbeing, physical health and academic performance between 2018 and 2022, which also coincided with the Covid pandemic.
Dr Philip Goodwin, chief executive of the United Kingdom Committee for Unicef, said the report provided a 'deeply concerning insight into just how much UK children are struggling'.
'Our teenagers are reporting some of the lowest life satisfaction levels, which must be a wake-up call for the Government. However, action to tackle these issues is not coming fast enough,' he said.
'The UK Government's comprehensive spending review next month must show it is serious about improving the lives of children by addressing the record numbers living in poverty and investing in essential health and education services to support children right from the very start of their lives.'
Unicef warned of a 'polycrisis' facing children across the globe, such as the ongoing impact of the Covid pandemic, climate change and developments in digital technology.
Researchers concluded that, in many wealthy countries, children are 'becoming less happy with their lives, more likely to be overweight and obese, and are not doing well at school'.
Multiple health issues
The Unicef 'report card' specifically examined teen life satisfaction aged 15 and adolescent suicide between the ages of 15 and 19.
On skills, it looked at academic proficiency and social skills, both at 15 years.
It comes after a report into the state of health across Europe by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revealed children in England were more likely to complain of multiple illnesses than almost all other countries, while also suffering from the worst outlook on life.
Almost two-thirds of 11-year-old English girls report having multiple health issues at least twice a week – more than any other country on the Continent.
This rises to 71 per cent by the age of 13 and 77 per cent by age 15, when it is only more common to have multiple ailments in Italy and Greece.
At the same time, English girls had the worst mental wellbeing of the 44 countries assessed across all three ages.
A Government spokesman said: 'This Government is investing an extra £680 million in mental health services this year, to help recruit 8,500 more mental health workers and put mental health support in every school.
'We are also tackling obesity head on by blocking new fast-food outlets near schools and cracking down on junk food adverts on TV and online to protect young children.
'We are developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school and driving up standards in schools through our new regional improvement teams.'