The US, with its individualist, free-market ideology, is very different. There is little cash support for families.

Government programs supposedly provide a social safety net, but politicians are, in fact, largely indifferent to the well-being of the poor, because poor voters turn out in lower numbers and do not finance America's expensive election campaigns.

Indeed, the evidence strongly suggests that US politicians tend to listen and respond only to their richer constituents. The so-called safety net has suffered accordingly, as have America's poor.

The differences between the social democracies and the US show up strongly in category after category.

In the social democracies, less than 10 percent of children grow up in relative poverty (meaning households with less than half of the country's median income). In the US, the rate of relative poverty exceeds 20 percent.

American children suffer far more from low birth weight (a major danger signal for later life); being overweight at ages 11, 13, and 15; and very high rates of teenage fertility. There are around 35 births for every 1,000 girls aged 15-19, compared to fewer than 10 per thousand in the northern European countries.

More violence

Likewise, US children face considerably more violence in society than children do in other high-income countries. That may not be surprising, but it is deeply troubling, because children's exposure to violence is a major threat to their physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Homicide rates in the US are roughly five times higher than in northern Europe.

One fascinating aspect of the UNICEF study is its use of what is now called "subjective well-being." This means asking a person directly about his or her life satisfaction. There have been many recent studies of the subjective well-being of adults around the world. But I know of no comparable research in which children were asked directly about their sense of well-being ? a very smart question indeed.

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