Growing wealth inequality in developed nations means children from poorer backgrounds increasingly lag behind those from more affluent families. That was one of the conclusions of a report released this week at the 5th Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy held this week in Guadalajara.
One child in seven in the world’s 34 richest nations now lives in poverty, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) How’s Life? report. Children suffer the most from the widening income inequality gap, the study says.
The forum brought together learned minds from OEDC’s 34-member nations to address the question of how to best put into practice well-being measures to improve public policies and people’s lives.
Presented by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria, the report highlights how growing inequality among parents in developed nations affects children from poorer backgrounds in terms of life satisfaction, reading and problem-solving skills.
The report shows that children from poorer homes are more likely to be bullied at school and have more difficulty in finding jobs as adults.
“Policies will fail to build a better society if they do not take into account the needs of all of its members,” Gurria said.