The Child Development Index [2008]

The Child Development Index, created by Save the Children UK [United Kingdom], is an online resource, a report in PDF format, and a spreadsheet of data for policymaking and development analysis worldwide. It is a global index comparing countries' performance on child well-being. It uses child-specific indicators in health, education and nutrition to rank countries in every region of the world, combining each country's performance in these areas specific to children, to produce a score on a scale of 0 to 100.

The index measures changes over three time periods beginning in 1990, up to the present. It describes how children are faring by country and region and highlights nutrition, equitable development, and women's education and empowerment. The report includes the following contents:

• Summary
• What commitments have been made to children?
• What are the costs and consequences of child deprivation?
• The Child Development Index
  
• Getting the data right
• Global and regional trends
  
• Which regions are performing better?
• Which regions performed less well?
• Progress between the three periods
  
• Progress by indicator
  
• How does our Index compare with the Human Development Index?
• Which countries performed best, and which performed worst?
  
• The policy response
  
• Prioritising child nutrition
• Promoting equitable development
  
• Supporting women’s education and empowerment
• Recommendations and conclusion
• Appendix: The Child Development Index