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CHILDREN

How well is France doing at looking after its kids?

The organisation Unicef has released a report ranking 41 rich countries according to the well-being of their children. Here are some of the key points about France.

How well is France doing at looking after its kids?
Photo: AFP
The Unicef report released on Thursday, ranking 41 rich countries according to nine goals identified as the most important for a child's well-being. 
 
These goals are: Ending poverty, ending hunger, ensuring healthy lives, ensuring quality education, ensuring job opportunities, reducing inequalities, creating sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production (linked to environmental sustainability) and the presence of peace, justice and strong institutions. 
 
Here's how France measured up and a look at some of the more interesting take outs from the report. 
 
1. Overall ranking
 
France finished 19th for child well-being overall compared to the UK which came in 13th and the US – ranked one of the worst countries assessed – at 37. 
 
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given they seem to top most international rankings, it was the Nordic countries and Germany dominating the top of the rankings, with Norway coming top closely followed by Germany and Denmark. Sweden, Finland and Iceland took fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. 
 
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Photo: Guy Renard/Flickr
 
2. Best scores
 
France's best score came from its performance in relation to “ending hunger” where it came seventh. This was followed by the quality of education available for which it was ranked 14th overall. 
 
By comparison, the UK's best scores were in reducing inequality (sixth) and responsible consumption and production (ninth). 
 
While the US saw its best ranking (13th) for its progress towards creating sustainable cities and communities and in the decent work and economic growth category where it came 17th. 
 
3. Worst scores 
 
Interestingly, France's best result was the UK's weakest area and vice versa. France's poorest ranking occurred in the reducing inequalities category where it was ranked 34th, with the UK coming 34th in relation to ending hunger.
 
France also scored poorly in relation to responsible consumption and production (25th), the creation of sustainable cities and communities (23rd) and in ensuring decent work and economic growth (20th).  
 
The US came a rather embarrassing 40th in its worst category which ranked it according to the presence of peace, justice and strong institutions in the country. 
 
4. Breastfeeding 
 
Apart from the main rankings one of the points Unicef focused on in the report was breastfeeding

This is one of the few positive health indicators on which rich countries tend to lag behind poorer ones.

The reports indicate that the “proportion of mothers who have ever breastfed is high in all the rich countries
included, with only France and Ireland reporting rates of below 75 per cent.”
 
The charity published a table of breastfeeding rates showing that even though both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef recommend exclusive breastfeeding for six months, only 23 percent of French women were still breastfeeding their child at six months-old, compared to Norway where data shows 71 percent were breastfeeding at this point and Japan where 63 percent were still breastfeeding. 
 
Some 37 percent of French women have never breastfed, only Ireland at 45 percent had a higher rate, according to the table.
 
READ ALSO: 
 
Photo: AFP
 
5. Social status vs. Education
 
One area where France lags behind the class on is the direct relation between a child's social and economic background and how well they do in school. 
 
Although Unicef highlights that the country has improved in this area, it still has the greatest disparity between background and results in school of any of the 39 country's included in this part of the report. 
 
Just a small increase on the scale used by the charity to measure someone's social and economic position can lead to an average improvement across the three main subjects of maths, science and reading of 56 score points, the equivalent of almost two years’ schooling. 
 
Photo: AFP
 
6. Mental health 
 
Under the Unicef goal of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being, France comes fairly high in terms of the percentage of adolescents reporting two or more psychological symptoms, including feeling low, irritable or nervous and having sleeping difficulties, more than once a week, with 27.9 percent of French teens reporting these symptoms. 
 
This compares to 19.9 percent of adolescents in the UK. The country with the highest rates of reported mental health issues in the survey was Italy with 36.5 percent. 
 
However Unicef does advise an element of caution around interpreting self-reported statistics.
 
7. Sexual violence against girls 
 
Unicef also considers gender equality as one of its official goals but this tenth objective had to be left out of the final rankings as a result of a lack of data. 
 
However we do know from their findings that when it comes to sexual violence against girls, France doesn't measure up well in comparison to other rich countries assessed in this category. While sexual violence by adults affects an average of 6 percent of European girls under the age of 15, in France it affects a shocking 12 percent. 
 
This makes France marginally better than the UK where 12.3 percent of girls are affected. Only girls in Luxembourg are worse off, with 13 percent of them affected by the issue. 
 

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CHILDREN

What names do foreign nationals give their babies in Switzerland?

Each year for more than three decades, the Federal Statistical Office has been publishing the first names of infants born in Switzerland the previous year. It seems that foreigners favour names that are typical of their national background.

What names do foreign nationals give their babies in Switzerland?
Foreigners give their babies names that reflect their nationality. Photo by Keira Burton from Pexels

As The Local reported on Wednesday, the most popular names for newborn girls born in Switzerland in 2020 were Mia, Emma, and Mila.

For boys, Noah took the top spot, ahead of Liam and Matteo.

REVEALED: The most popular baby name in each Swiss canton

But what about the most popular names among various nationalities living in Switzerland?

The answers come from the same study.

Italy

The top name for boys of Italian parents is Giuseppe, followed by Antonio and Francesco. For girls, Maria is in the first place, Anna in the second, and Francesca in the third.

Portugal

There are many Portuguese immigrants living in Switzerland and, like their Italian counterparts, they like to give their children traditional names: José, Carlos and Manuel for boys, and Maria, Ana, and Sandra for girls.

Spain

Spanish names are similar to those of Portuguese babies.

José, Juan and Jose are most popular boy names, while Maria, Ana and Laura are in the top three spots for the girls.

Turkey

Most boys of Turkish descent are named Mehmet, Ali, and Mustafa. Among girls, Fatma, Ayse, and Elif dominate.

Kosovo

Arben, Vallon, and Bekim are top names for boys, and Fatime, Shquipe, and Merite for girls.

Macedonia

Bekim is in the first place for boys, followed by Muhamed and Fatmir. Among girls, Fatimr is in the lead, Sara in the second place, and Emine in the third.

Serbia

Aleksandar, Dragan and Nicola take the first three spots. For the girls, Jelena, Maria and Snezana are at the top.

Can you give your baby any name you want?

Not in Switzerland, you can’t. It’s important to keep in mind that the cantonal registry offices, where new births must be announced, don’t have to accept very unusual names.

Several years ago, for instance, a Zurich court ruled that parents can’t name their infant daughter ‘J’.

In another case, a couple in the canton of Bern were ordered to change the name of their newborn son because their choice – Jessico – was considered too feminine. 

Several names have been forbidden in Switzerland, including Judas, Chanel, Paris and Mercedes. 

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