Secular countries top the world's best places to be a mother – United States does not fare well compared with other developed nations

A study conducted by the international organization, Save the Children, reveals that  eight of the ten best countries to be a mother are in Europe, and eight of the ten worst are in Africa.  The top five countries included Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark.  The worst place is Nigeria Niger (typo corrected).

Comparing Save the Children's data with other statistics, with the exception of New Zealand and Australia, secular countries having high populations of atheists/agnostics are the best places to be a mother.  Countries having the most restrictions on abortion fell into the worst countries to be a mother and conversely, those where abortion is legal were the best environments to be a mother.

The United States ranks 25 out of 43 developed nations, up from 31 last year.

“While the US has moved up in the rankings, ahead of last year’s 31st place, we still fall below most wealthy nations,” said Carolyn Miles, President & CEO of Save the Children. “A woman in the US is more than 7 times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause in her lifetime than a woman in Italy or Ireland. When it comes to the number of children enrolled in preschools or the political status of women, the United States also places in the bottom 10 countries of the developed world.”

Source: SaveTheChildren.org (linked)

The study analyzed factors like education, economics, health and politics for mothers and their children.

In Norway, life expectancy is 82 years old and only 1 in 175 children die before the age of 5.

Out of 165 countries, the African country of Niger was on the bottom of the list. There, a woman's average life expectancy is 56 years old. On average, they receive about four years of education and 1 in every 7 children die before the age of 5.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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