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More than 200 countries and territories are taking part in the Paris Olympics. At the opening ceremony, some countries needed full double-decker boats for their athletes, while others waved their flags from small Murano boats.China (388 athletes) and the USA (594) have large athlete delegations, while France (572), Slovenia (74), New Zealand (212), and Australia (460) have some of the highest athlete-to-population ratios.Despite their large populations, Pakistan (7), Bangladesh (5), and Myanmar (2) have few athletes at the Olympics.Somalia, with over 18 million people, has just one athlete. The Netherlands, with a population almost the same size, has 276 athletes competing.To find out more about the 2024 games, read this Economics Observatory article about home advantage.

Amid pressure to remove the two-child cap on benefits, the government has launched a new Child Poverty Unit. The cap, introduced by the Conservative government in 2017, means that families do not receive additional child tax credit or universal credit for third or fourth children born after April 2017.Over the last two decades, relative child poverty - the proportion of children in households with equivalised incomes below 60% of the median - has fallen slightly, though there has been a mild upward trend since 2013. Increases in the poverty rate for households with three or more children have been offset by a reduction for those with one or two children.To find out more about child poverty in the UK, read this Economics Observatory article detailing its history over the last 30 years.

The de facto ban on onshore wind energy in England has been lifted. From 2015, stringent English planning regulations meant that any local opposition could halt onshore wind projects and all projects had to form part of a local development plan - conditions not applied to other energy types.As one of the cheapest forms of electricity, wind energy will be central to the UK’s net-zero transition. Last year, the National Infrastructure Commission called for onshore wind to be ‘scaled up’, following years of stagnation in England. Since 2017, English capacity has risen by just 2%, while in Scotland – unaffected by the ban – it has surged by 86%.To find out more about the green transition, read this Economics Observatory article, which links to the full range of our coverage of the issue.

Disparities in access pose challenges for the rollout of additional free childcare.Centre for Progressive Policy analysis predicts a rise in demand by 52% for under-2s by late 2025, requiring 27,800 more full-time staff. Investment is crucial to ensure all areas can utilise the new funding.

From 2004-2018, UK parents with average incomes faced childcare costs of 20-25% of household income, among the highest in the OECD. In contrast, France and Germany's costs were 5-12%.Since 2022, these costs in the UK have dropped to 10%, now around the OECD average.

Net childcare costs for parents earning minimum wage are lower due to additional government support. In the UK, net costs represents 5% of couples’ household income and 7% of single parents’.Government support helps to reduce the financial burden for some lower-income families.