Judging countries over several parameters including Maternity & Paternity Time Off, Gender Pay Gap, Job Protection through Maternity, Unemployment Rate and Quality of Education, among others, Money Guru’s latest global parenting index ranks the best (and worst) places in the world to raise a child. 

While globally Norway leads the index, Singapore is at the top when it comes to the best place to raise a child or be a parent in Asia. Singapore ranks 4th in the global index, ahead of countries like the UK, USA and Denmark. 

Other Asian countries that have ranked well on the index include Malaysia 8th in Asia (31st globally), China 11th in Asia (40th globally), Philippines 12th in Asia (41st globally) and Thailand which ranked 22nd globally. 

Here are some interesting findings from the survey:

• Interestingly, as per the survey countries generally, where regular turbulence is observed, for example, Lybia and Yemen offer better maternity leave and job protection for women than the USA.
  
  
• Further, these countries offer job protection or have no explicit job protection, which means it may depend on the workplace, as opposed to the US who has no paid maternal leave at all. Yemen offers less than 14 weeks of maternity leave, where again, the US offers none at all.
  
  
• The Scandinavian countries renowned for their consistently high quality of life, Iceland and Norway lead the index for their good policies around childcare. They offer a good level of maternity leave (26 – 51.9 weeks) as well as over 14 weeks of paternity leave. Additionally, these countries offer benefits that continue throughout a child’s development, with paid leave available for both parents to take care of everyday health requirements.

While the report lists some of the best countries in terms of policies for working parents, there are many more factors to consider when choosing where to raise a family. The index, however, helps in differentiating and identifying the growth policies and benefits around childcare has made over the world. 

Although some countries have proven to have better regulations in place than others, even they have a long road to take when it comes to creating a sustainable culture that supports working parents, both at an organizational and national level.