The 2020 Best Countries Report revealed that the US is not best country in the world to raise a child in, although it took the top spot in education.
The annual survey, conducted by U.S. News & World Report and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, showed that the US is only at number 18 for best country to raise a child.
While the US came in first place in terms of a well-developed public education system, it fell to number 18 after factoring in such qualities as safety, gender equality, green living, family friendly laws and human rights.
The top ranking countries were Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Deidre McPhillips, senior data editor at U.S. News & World Report, said: "These countries tend to have generous paternal leave and maternal leave, offer free preschool and have good overall public education systems."
"One area where the US falls behind quite a bit is in the safety metric. In that attribute, the US actually ranks 32, pretty far down the list. So that really impacts its ratings for raising kids, of course," added McPhillips.
The Best Countries report evaluated 73 nations across 65 different metrics by surveying over 20,000 people in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
For the fourth consecutive year, Switzerland ranked as Best Country overall, while Canada moved up to second, followed by Japan, Germany, Australia and the UK. The US took the seventh spot, improving from the year prior but still below the number four ranking on all attributes in the inaugural 2016 report.
While the US remains first in influence and power, it scored a record low of 16 out of a 100-point scale in "trust." McPhillips said: "United States is no longer trustworthy. It's 50% less less trustworthy than it was when we first started a survey back in 2016."
She also said that the UK posted the second largest decline in trust score, possibly due to Brexit worries.
