The Raising A Family Index published by website Asher & Lyric compares data on 35 OECD countries to see which were the best for raising a family in 2020. Luxembourg is in 5th place, outperformed only by Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Safe, reasonable costs, time available
The index is based on six categories:
- Safety: homicide rate, law and order index, number of school shootings, human rights, etc.
- Happiness: woman freedom index, world happiness index, suicide rates, etc.
- Cost: childcare, private education and health spending, etc.
- Health: maternal and under-five child mortality, air pollution exposure, life expectancy, etc.
- Education: student enrolment rates, reading, mathematics and science performance
- Time: hours worked, paid maternity, paternity and sick leave, paid vacation time
Luxembourg is awarded an A+ rating in the safety, cost and time categories. It ranks 1st worldwide in the time category, notably due to its generous paternity leave and number of paid vacation days. Its affordable childcare, healthcare and education and strong purchasing power places it 2nd in terms of cost.
Happiness and health
Luxembourg also gets A ratings for happiness and health. In the health category, it is again in 2nd place worldwide.
The only category where Luxembourg performs less well is education, where the country only receives a D ranking. The reason is relatively low student enrolment rates and less good performance in the International Student Performance.
Photo: © Luxinnovation/Vincent Rémy