We’re number 32!

According to this year’s Best Countries Report, done annually since 2016 by U.S. News & World Report and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania:

The US came in at number 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 & World Report.”One area where the US falls behind quite a bit is in the safety metric,” she said. “In that attribute, the US actually ranks 32, pretty far down the list. So that really impacts its ratings for raising kids, of course.”

Right. We let our kids get gunned down on a daily basis because we have an abstract commitment to gun rights for self-defense that potentially makes everyone who isnt armed lose their right to life. It’s a little weird.

The US also came in at number 15 in citizenship, quality of life and best place to visit. It ranked 17th in greenest countries, 18th in most transparent countries, and 26th in best places to travel alone — another safety issue.And on a key attribute, gender equality, the US came in at number 15, way behind the Scandinavian countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“Gender equality tends to have a strong correlation with many of the positive attributes that country can have,” McPhillips said. “We would consider this a driver of what makes a best country overall because so many of the top countries rank highly in this attribute.”

Yeah, gender equality isn’t one of our best attributes.

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