Governments provide family benefits through cash benefits, tax breaks, and services, the total amount of which is equivalent on average to 2.3% of GDP. Most, but not all, OECD countries spend more on cash benefits than on services or tax breaks for families with children. Public spending on family benefits has gone up since the early 2000s, with the most significant increase observed in spending on early education and childcare services. Families with school-age children also receive support in the form of public spending on education, which, from primary school to post-secondary education, represents 3.3% of GDP on average across the OECD.
Child and family well-being
Child and family well-being is vital for society. Flourishing children are more likely to do well at school, develop social skills, and become resilient. Family well-being offers stability and support, laying the foundation for personal growth. Policies supporting child and family well-being are key to the future prosperity of individuals and their communities.
Key links
Key messages
Childhood is a crucial period in life. The things that people learn, do and experience in childhood play a critical role in shaping how they develop and who they become, and can leave lasting impressions on lifetime outcomes. However, not all children have the same opportunities to enjoy good childhoods and to learn and grow in ways that set them up well for adult life. Children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at particular risk of achieving poorer outcomes in almost all life areas, including physical health, educational attainment, social relationships, and subjective well-being. Enhancing people’s well-being, therefore, requires policies to tackle the disadvantages that children can experience in multiple domains of life.
Good policy making for child well-being calls for government ministries, agencies and other service providers to better collaborate and to focus efforts on a small number of key child well-being issues. Focusing integrated child policy plans on a small number of cross-government activities could mean either addressing a small number of clear priority issues or cross-cutting issues for which coordinated action by different bodies, administrations, and potentially civil society organisation and other stakeholders is most needed. Being clear and explicit about priority groups of children and their families is necessary, on top of thinking concretely about service delivery integration. Moreover, to the greatest extent possible, streamlining coordination processes could help minimise the coordination burden that integrated plans may generate.
Most OECD countries have experienced a drop in fertility rates over the years. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) across OECD countries has decreased from 2.8 children per woman in 1970 to 1.5 in 2022. This decline will change the face of societies, communities, and families, and potentially has large effects on societal well-being. The OECD is looking at the multiple drivers of fertility rates and is working to understand how policy can support fertility decisions.
Context
What are the economic costs of childhood socio-economic disadvantage?
Childhood socio-economic disadvantage has lifelong consequences that limit opportunities and have negative consequences for employment, earnings, and health. The labour market penalties attached to childhood disadvantage are worth on average the equivalent of 1.6% of GDP each year, and the health penalties the annual equivalent of 1.9% of GDP. Bringing the two together produces a total average cost from childhood disadvantage that stands at the equivalent of 3.4% of GDP.
Fertility rates are declining
In 2021, only one OECD country, Israel, had a total fertility rate (TFR) above the 2.1 children per woman needed for population replacement. In most OECD countries, the rate is between 1.2 and 1.8 children per woman of childbearing age, and as low as 0.72 in Korea in 2023. The average fertility rate across OECD countries has been declining steadily for decades, from 2.8 in 1970 to 1.5 in 2022, with the decline being particularly pronounced in Colombia, Korea, Mexico and Türkiye. In 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic, fertility rates increased in two-thirds of OECD countries, albeit from a historic low level in 2020. In 2022, rates declined again in almost all OECD countries.
Related publications
Related policy issues
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To understand whether policies are improving lives we need to look "beyond GDP" and consider a broader range of economic, social and environmental outcomes for people. This also allows to understand what matters to people and what drives their behaviours, providing another channel of action to policies. The OECD is leading efforts to develop indicators that measure the well-being of individuals, families, society, future generations and the planet at a time of deep changes and transformations.Learn more