Irish teenagers are in the bottom half for wellbeing in high-income countries despite leading in academic performance, the latest report by Unicef has found.
The report – Report Card 19: Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable world – compares the wellbeing of children across 43 countries in the EU and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Of these, Ireland ranks 24th for adolescent wellbeing, placing it in the bottom half globally.
Drawing on official data and offering analysis, the study also reveals Ireland’s youth suicide rate to be above the international average, standing at 6.4 per 100,000.
“These findings are stark,” said Peter Power, executive director of Unicef Ireland.
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“Ireland’s teens are succeeding in school, but struggling in life. We must match our investment in academic achievement with the same urgency for mental and emotional wellbeing,” he added.
Nearly one in three 15-year-olds in Ireland reported low life satisfaction, while analysis from 2018 to 2022 indicates declining life satisfaction in adolescents across 22 of 26 countries with available data.
Unicef pointed to the role of school closures and widespread social isolation during this period due to the Covid-19 pandemic in disconnecting adolescents from critical support systems.
“The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities, setting a troubling precedent for children’s wellbeing – particularly among those from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds,” said Aibhlin O’Leary, head of advocacy at Unicef Ireland.
“To respond meaningfully, we need a unified, child-centred strategy that tackles these disparities head-on and supports every child, at every stage of their development.”
Also highlighting physical health risks, the report found that more than one in four children and adolescents in Ireland are overweight or obese.
Unicef Ireland has called on the Government to take targeted actions to protect child wellbeing, including increasing investment in school mental health services and reducing waiting times for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), improving school meals and strengthening digital resilience within the Junior Cycle curriculum.
