Methodology
How we build country profiles.
15 Core Indicators
Each country profile includes 15 quantitative indicators, grouped into four categories:
Health & Survival
- Under-5 mortality rate — Deaths per 1,000 live births before age 5
- Child stunting — Percentage of children under 5 with low height-for-age
- Immunization coverage (DTP3) — Percentage of infants receiving three doses of DTP vaccine
- Adolescent birth rate — Births per 1,000 women aged 15–19
Education & Development
- Government education expenditure — Public spending on education as percentage of GDP
- Primary school enrollment — Net enrollment ratio in primary education
- Pre-primary enrollment — Gross enrollment ratio in pre-primary education
- Mean years of schooling — Average years of education for adults 25+
Protection & Rights
- Birth registration — Percentage of children under 5 whose births are registered
- Child labor rate — Percentage of children aged 5–17 engaged in child labor
- Corporal punishment legal status — Whether corporal punishment is fully prohibited by law
- Child marriage rate — Percentage of women aged 20–24 married before age 18
Family & Society
- Paid parental leave — Weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave available
- Childcare enrollment (0–2) — Percentage of children under 3 in formal childcare
- Child poverty rate — Percentage of children living below the national poverty line
Data Sources
Indicators are drawn from official international databases:
- UNICEF Data Warehouse — Under-5 mortality, stunting, birth registration, immunization, child labor, child marriage
- World Bank Open Data — Education expenditure, adolescent birth rate, school enrollment
- OECD Family Database — Parental leave, childcare enrollment, child poverty
- WHO Global Health Observatory — Health and immunization indicators
- UNESCO UIS — Education statistics, mean years of schooling
- endcorporalpunishment.org — Legal status of corporal punishment worldwide
Update Cadence
Quantitative data refreshed quarterly. Cultural context reviewed annually.
Content Generation Process
AI-assisted research (Claude by Anthropic) → human editorial review → publication. No country profile is published without editorial review.
Quality Framework
- Sources cited — Every data point links back to its original source
- Non-judgmental tone — "In Japan, children typically..." not "Japan is better because..."
- Factual framing — We present context profiles, not rankings or scores
- Cultural respect — Descriptions reflect general patterns, not stereotypes
Disclaimer
This content is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute professional parenting, legal, or medical advice. Cultural descriptions reflect general patterns and may not apply to every family or region within a country.