One in four children at risk of poverty in EU

The European Union (EU) said on Wednesday that around 25 million children, or 26.9 percent of the population aged 0 to 17, in the 28-member bloc were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2015.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, published these figures. Since 2010, the proportion of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU has slightly decreased, from 27.5 percent in 2010 to 26.9 percent in 2015. However, contrasting trends were observed across the EU member states.

In 2015, more than a third of children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in six member states: Romania (46.8 percent), Bulgaria (43.7 percent), followed by Greece (37.8 percent), Hungary (36.1 percent), Spain (34.4 percent) and Italy (33.5 percent).

While the lowest shares of children being at risk of poverty or social exclusion were recorded in Sweden (14.0 percent), Finland (14.9 percent) and Denmark (15.7 percent), ahead of Slovenia (16.6 percent), the Netherlands (17.2 percent), the Czech Republic and Germany (both 18.5 percent).

Approximately, in half of the member states, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate has grown from 2010 to 2015, with the highest increases being recorded in Greece (+9.1 percentage points), followed by Cyprus (+7.1 pp), and Italy (+4.0 pp). In contrast, Latvia (-10.9 pp), Bulgaria (-6.1 pp) and Poland (-4.2 pp) saw the largest decrease.

According to these figures, the proportion of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU decreases with the education level of their parents.

In 2015, almost two thirds of all children whose parents had a low education level were at risk of poverty in the EU, compared with 30.3 percent of children residing with parents who had a medium education level and 10.6 percent of children with parents with a higher education level. Endit