最适合养娃的国家在北欧

What’s the best country in the world to raise a child? If a well-developed public education system tops your list, you’d likely consider the United States — it took the top spot in education in this year’s Best Countries Report, done annually since 2016 by U.S. News and World Report and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

But if you factor in such qualities as safety, gender equality, green living, family-friendly laws and human rights, you’d look elsewhere. The U.S. came in at No. 18 for best country to raise a child, beaten by many countries in Europe, Canada and Australia. Child-raising is just one of several categories listed in the survey.

Top marks went to Denmark, Sweden and Norway, a typical trend.

“These countries tend to have generous paternal leave and maternal leave, offer free preschool and have good overall public education systems,” said Deidre McPhillips, senior data editor at U.S. News and World Report.

“One area where the U.S. falls behind quite a bit is in the safety metric,” she said. “In that attribute, the U.S. actually ranks 32nd, pretty far down the list. So that really impacts its ratings for raising kids.”

Canada came in fourth for raising kids, followed by the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia and Austria. The U.K. came in at No. 11.

The Best Countries report evaluated 73 nations across 65 different metrics. To do so it surveyed more than 20,000 people in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Respondents are rather evenly split between leaders in business, college-educated citizens who consider themselves middle class or higher and who read or watch the news at least four days a week, and the general public, defined as over age 18 who’s age and gender were nationally representative of their countries’ demographic.

Switzerland took the blue ribbon as Best Country for the fourth year in a row. Canada moved up to No. 2 overall, followed by Japan, Germany, Australia and the U.K. The U.S. came in seventh overall, better than last year but still behind its original No. 4 ranking on all attributes in the inaugural 2016 report.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【度量标准】dùliáng biāozhǔn

metric A standard of measurement, especially one that evaluates a complex process or system

【人口统计数据】 rénkǒu tǒngjì shùjù

demographic a particular sector of a population

世界上哪个国家最适合养娃呢？如果你优先考虑的是高度发达的公共教育体制，你可能会考虑美国 —— 在今年的全球最棒国家排行榜中，美国的教育高居榜首。自从2016年以来，《美国新闻和世界报道》与宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院每年都会发布这一排行榜。

但如果你将安全、性别平等、绿色生活、家庭友好型法律和人权考虑在内，你就要考虑别的国家了。在最适合养娃的国家中，美国只排在第18名，被加拿大、澳大利亚和欧洲的许多国家赶超。养娃只是该调查涉及的几个类别之一。

最适合养娃的国家是丹麦、瑞典和挪

威，通常都是如此。

《美国新闻和世界报道》的高级数据编辑黛德丽▪麦克菲力浦斯说：“这些国家往往有充裕的陪产假和产假，提供免费学前教育，还有良好的整体公共教育制度。”

她说：“美国比较落后的一个方面是安全指标。美国在安全方面只名列32位，排名相当靠后。这会影响养娃评分。”

加拿大在养娃上排名第四，接下来是荷兰、芬兰、瑞士、新西兰、澳大利亚和奥地利。英国排第11名。

全球最棒国家报告从65个不同指标对73个国家进行了评估。该报告调查了美洲、亚洲、欧洲、中东和非洲超2万人。受访者平均分布于企业领导者、受过大学教育并且每周至少四天阅读新闻或看新闻节目的中产阶级以上公民，以及年龄和性别能代表该国人口结构的18岁以上普通民众。

瑞士已经连续四年摘得最棒国家桂冠。加拿大整体排名第二，其后是日本、德国、澳大利亚和英国。美国整体排名第七，比去年排名有所上升，但仍低于2016年的初次排名（第四名）。(chinadaily.com.cn)