The Netherlands drops out of top 20 in KidsRights Index for first time ever

The Netherlands has fallen in the ranking of children’s rights for 2025, landing outside the top 20 for the first time ever. Claiming the 21st spot, the Netherlands dropped two places in the KidsRights Index this year, mainly due to concerns about low vaccination rates and the digital safety of children. 

KidsRights Index 2025

An annual initiative of the KidsRights Foundation, together with Erasmus University Rotterdam, the KidsRights Index looks at how countries follow and improve children’s rights. In 2025, 194 countries were included in the study.

To determine the ranking of a country, the index looks at five main domains, namely:

• The right to life
• The right to health
• The right to education
• The right to protection
• The right to an enabling environment

This year, the organisation raised concerns about children across the globe struggling with mental health and problematic social media use. “This year’s report is a wake-up call that we cannot ignore any longer,” said Marc Dullaert, Founder and Chairman of KidsRights. “The mental health and/or wellbeing crisis among our children has reached a tipping point, exacerbated by the unchecked expansion of social media platforms that prioritise engagement over child safety.” Greece took the number one spot in this year’s ranking, with Iceland and Luxembourg rounding out the top three.

Dutch children’s rights have worsened

In the first KidsRights Index back in 2013, the Netherlands was in third place. Over the years, the position has worsened, and for 2025, the Netherlands is now outside the top 20 for the first time ever.

According to Marc Dullaert, the Netherlands does not have its basic children’s rights in order and told NOS that the country is not prepared to protect children for the digital future. While the country is debating introducing an age limit for social media and banning mobile phones in schools, the approach is still inching along and not yet protecting the mental health of young people in the country. 

Other concerns include the low vaccination rates of children and problems with youth care. The vaccination rate of children in the Netherlands is below the threshold set out by the World Health Organisation, as more and more Dutch parents choose not to get their kids vaccinated. The blame for this falls on the government for not carrying out effective vaccination campaigns to encourage people to get vaccinated. 

Dullaert also believes that the Netherlands is not doing enough to prioritise the rights of children when making decisions about asylum and migration, child poverty and the quality of youth care. "Last October, there was a lot of news about the miserable conditions in which children in the Netherlands are in emergency shelters,” said Dullaert. “Then nothing is done to improve the situation of those children in emergency shelters. Well, all of that means you drop down the rankings and get a bad grade."

Top 10 countries for children’s rights

In all, here are the 10 best countries for children’s rights:

1. Greece
2. Iceland
3. Luxembourg
4. Germany
5. Monaco
6. Denmark
7. Belgium
8. Norway
9. Finland
10. Thailand

For more information about the study and to see the full ranking, visit the KidsRights website.