According to an annual scorecard published by Save the Children on Monday, all countries ranked in the top five as having the best conditions for mothers and their children in 2015 went to Scandinavian countries, with Norway beating out Finland for the number one spot.
Norway sits well ahead of the U.S., ranked number 33.
In Save the Children’s 16th annual Mother’s Index, the U.S. dropped from spot 31 in last year’s report to 33 this year, positioned below Japan, Korea, and Croatia.
Somalia scores last among the 179 countries surveyed, below the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and Mali.
“The top 10 countries, in general, attain very high scores for mothers’ and children’s health, educational, economic and political status,” the report explains. “The 11 bottom-ranked countries – all but two of them from West and Central Africa – are a reverse image of the top 10, performing poorly on all indicators."
"Conditions for mothers and their children in the bottom countries are grim," the Index states.
"On average, 1 woman in 30 dies from pregnancy-related causes and 1 child in 8 dies before his or her fifth birthday.”
For its annual Mother's Index rankings, Save the Children examines mother and infant mortality rates, expected years of formal schooling, gross national income per capita, and political participation rates of women in national government.
After studying the latest available data, the non-profit found that American women have a one in 1,800 risk of maternal death, the worst level of risk of any developed country in the world.
Save the Children also took a closer look at cities, as "increasing numbers of mothers are raising their children in urban areas."
According to the organization's findings, Washington, D.C. has the highest death risk among capital cities in high-income countries:
“Save the Children examined infant mortality rates in 25 capital cities of wealthy countries an found that Washington, D.C. had the highest infant mortality rate at 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013.
"While this rate is an all-time low for the District of Columbia, it is still 3 times the rate found in Tokyo and Stockholm."
The non-profit also found the wealth gap in Washington, D.C. to be a determining factor in the well-being of the city's children:
“There are also huge gaps between rich and poor in Washington," Save the Children adds.
"Babies in Ward 8, where over half of all children live in poverty, are about 10 times as likely as babies in Ward 3, the richest part of the city, to die before their first birthday.”
The 2015 Mother’s Index as a whole sheds light on the need to address health disparities widening between rich and poor in cities across the world and at home.