The news from a new international survey is not great.

According to this year’s “Best Countries Report” published by U.S. News and World Report and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, the United States is the 18th-best country in which to raise a child.

Not good for a country that prides itself as the wonder of the world; where we barely can remember who comes in second place.

The study used such factors as gender equality, environmental protection, human rights and such family-friendly policies as preschool and parental leave.

We were bested by a number of countries in Europe, along with Australia and our neighbor, Canada, which came in fourth.

We did even worse when it comes to child safety, skidding to 32nd place. It probably doesn’t help that nearly 5,800 American kids are injured every year from gunfire — more than any industrialized country on the planet.

On gender equality, we landed on the 15th. The same country where some can’t envision having a woman president? Really?

Spoonfuls of sugar

After reviewing 73 nations and surveying 20,000 people, researchers determined the top 10 countries for child raising a child are Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, and Austria.

“These countries tend to have generous paternal leave and maternal leave, offer free preschool and have good overall public education systems,” Deidre McPhillips of U.S. News and World Report told CNN.

The high cost of giving birth in the U.S. probably doesn’t help, either. Even with good insurance, it can be prohibitive, with out-of-pocket costs going as high as $4.000 to $5,000.

And then you have to feed the baby.

The study also noted American toddlers and infants eat far too much sugar and have too much screen time.

But how else are we supposed to keep kids occupied while we’re arguing on Facebook over Donald Trump? The president has lamented and wondered allowed why more people from Nordic countries don’t immigrate to the U.S.

Is he kidding?

Failure factories

You invest in what you value.

We embrace weird economics in which we’d rather spend public money on incarceration than on universal pre-K, though early childhood education has been proven to be a factor in reducing the likelihood of criminal activity.

We have recast public schools as villains and “failure factories” and have thrown money instead at charter schools, which almost universally perform even worse.

We don’t blink twice at government spending overruns or handing over subsidy checks to oil companies and commercial megafarms but are willing to die on the hill in opposition to expanding Head Start.

We shrug at the news many of America’s biggest corporations pay nothing in taxes because we’re too busy kicking people for seeking food stamps and school lunches.

Now, we can finger-wag that people shouldn’t be having kids they can’t afford, but we also know things happen in life. People lose jobs, get divorced or become unable to raise their kids without some help.

We also know there are millions of parents who are being responsible, who are working as hard as they can, but it’s getting harder for them to keep up.

In 2020, the wealth gap looks like the Grand Canyon.

They aren’t the reason why we’re in 18th place.