Top 10 Countries To Be A Girl [The US Isn't One Of Them...]

Gourmandize

A recent study reveals which countries are the best and the worst when it comes to girls' rights. Unfortunately, the US falls short. 

Last Tuesday, October 11th, was International Day Of The Girl Child. British NGO Save The Children took advantage  of the occasion to release a study on the health, education and opportunities for girls in 144 countries of the world. 

The study, titled "Every Last Girl," took 5 major factors into account: 

• Child marriage
• Lower-secondary school completion
• Adolescent fertility
• Maternal mortality (as an indicator of girls' access to good-quality healthcare)
• The proportion of women present in Parliament (as opposed to male MP's)

One of the study's figures shows these 10 countries as being at the top of the list in terms of the Girl Opportunity Index:

1. Sweden
2. Finland
3. Norway
4. Netherlands
5. Belgium
6. Denmark
7. Slovenia
8. Portugal
9. Switzerland
10. Italy

So it looks like the Scandinavian countries are doing something right. Meanwhile, the US sits at an embarrassingly low 32nd place. The study notes that despite our country having one of the world's biggest economies, it is behind Algeria and Kazakhstan, due to low representation of women in Parliament, high rate of adolescent pregnancy and maternal death rates when compared to other countries with similar incomes. 

We might not be the worst off, but we're still a long ways away from being where we should be. And what's even more eye-opening are the global statistics featured in the study that shed a sad light on where women stand in the world today:

• More than 700 million women in the world today have been married before their 18th birthday (of which 1 in 3 married before the age of 15)
• About 30 million girls are estimated to be at risk for genital cutting in the next 10 years
• Teenage girls are more likely to experience violence, particularly sexual in nature, than teenage boys
• 2.6 billion girls live in countries where where marital rape is not explicitly considered a crime
• An estimated 70,000 adolescent females die each year, due to pregnancy complications or childbirth
• Each year, 2.5 million girls under the age of 16 give birth
• All around the world, 62 million girls are not in school

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