SA families face overwhelming social odds
An extensive study on the health, education and general well-being of families across the world indicates that South African families are some of the most dysfunctional in the world and reveals how poverty and unemployment are affecting the life chances of our children.
International NGO Child Trends today released the results of the study, entitled ‘World Family Map 2013', which analyses data from 45 countries to compare the state of families from different countries (see here).
The most troubling findings for South Africa include:
South African children are most likely to grow up without a biological parent in their household.
21% of all South African children grow up in such households. In other African countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Ethiopia about 10% of children grow up without either parent. In the vast majority of other countries surveyed less than 5% of children grow up without either parent.