Economic Cost of Child Abuse 2 Billion Per Year

Infometrics, in a report for Every Child Counts, has found that child abuse and neglect costs New Zealand around $NZ 2 billion or over 1% of Gross Domestic Product each year. 

This figure includes the direct costs of health care and child welfare services, ongoing costs related to long run health and crime impacts and also the indirect cost of lost productivity.  

The report find that currently less than 0.1% of GDP is spent on preventative services. One conclusion of the report, from a purely economic standpoint, is that the cost of child abuse and neglect is sufficiently high that removing these costs would justify an investment of between $19 billion and $30 billion using a discount rate of 10% or 6% respectively, across a 50 year time period.

Every Child Counts made up of a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations from all sectors of New Zealand society led by Plunket, Barnardos, UNICEF, Save the Children and Te Kahui Mana Ririki.

A summary of the report is available via the Every Child Counts website here.

The full report is available via the Every Child Counts website here.

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