International comparisons of child Well-Being

Abstract

Over recent years the number of international comparisons of child well-being has grown. These comparisons have taken advantage of new data available in expanding international surveys of children to assess what countries are achieving for their children, and whether lessons for child and family policies can be drawn across nations. This chapter reflect on the purposes and challenges of international comparisons of child well-being, how these comparisons are constructed, the results, and how robust these results are. It goes on to introduce follow-up work to comparison of well-being outcomes, such as comparisons of child public expenditure and policy comparisons, which have been developed to explain why countries of similar levels of economic development produce such a broad range of children’s outcomes. The chapter concludes with a short reflection on key steps to improve international comparisons of child well-being, before finally addressing a key question of “what has comparative research taught us so far about how to improve children's well-being?.”