Today is Universal Children's day - yet 25% of children in the UK are unhappy- find out more.

United Nations Universal Children’s Day was established in 1954 and is celebrated on November 20th each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children's welfare.

Yet recently the Children's society reported that 25% of children in the UK are unhappy

The annual report on childhood is based on a large scale survey multi dimensional index of items which measure subjective well being. These include health, education, social relations and living conditions. They are also cross matched with gender and socioeconomic position.. Past indexes are also available on the website for a longer term comparison of trends.

For further insight into the lives of children in England today consult the website of the Children's Commissioner. the latest bulletin spotlights what they worry about.

Another good source for researchers and students to keep up to date with the latest research publications is the NSPCC website. They have a specialist library and it is possible to sign up to alerting bulletins. These include the CASPAR current awareness alerting bulletin.

The Social Care online database maintained by SCIE is another good source for literature searching it indexes journal articles, reports and grey literature on all aspects of social work and social care

On a broader scale how does the UK compare with other nations?

The KidsRights Index from the KidsRights Foundation, in cooperation with Erasmus University Rotterdam: Erasmus School of Economics and the International Institute of Social Studies has an annual ranking for all 181 UN member states that have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

UNICEF ranks OECD and EU nations countries in terms of family friendly policies

UNICEF state of the Worlds children report focuses in 2019 on the state of malnutrition and diet experienced by young people worldwide. It includes an extensive data dashboard

Save the Children publishes regular Global Childhood reports. In 2019 it found that Since the year 2000, circumstances have improved for children in 173 out of 176 countries, saving hundreds of millions of childhoods
However, Today, 1 child in 4 is still being denied the right to a childhood. This is detailed in its End of Childhood report which details the number and age of children being forced into marriage, work and out of education.