More than one in five children live in poverty in rich countries, says Unicef

Their number is decreasing compared to 2014, but the trend is opposite in certain countries, including France.

The situation is improving overall, but it remains dramatic. More than 69 million children, or more than one in five children, were living in poverty in 40 rich European Union and OECD countries in 2021, according to a report published by Unicef ​​on Tuesday December 5 .

“For most children, this means a risk of growing up lacking nutritious food, clothing, school supplies or a warm place to live.”commented the director of the research branch of Unicef, highlighting the risks for their “physical and mental health”.

UNICEF relies mainly on “relative poverty”, a measure often used by developed countries. According to this definition, households earning less than 60% of the national median income are considered poor.

Between the periods 2012-2014 and 2019-2021, “around 6 million children” have emerged from poverty, out of the 291 million children living in the 40 countries studied, a drop of 8%, observes the report. The countries where the situation has improved the most are Poland (-37.6% of poor children), Slovenia (-31.4%), Latvia (-31%) and Lithuania (-30. 6%).

More poor children in France

But in some countries, this figure is deteriorating: in France, the child poverty rate increased by 10.4% between the two periods, according to the report. In the United Kingdom, it has even increased by almost 20%, with half a million additional poor children. In the United States, the number of poor children has fallen by 6.7%, but more than one in four children still live in relative poverty.

Children from single-parent families or from minorities are also more likely to be poor, according to the report. In the United States, for example, 30% of African-American children and 29% of Native American children live below the national poverty line, compared to 10% of non-Hispanic white children.

In the European Union, a child with parents from a country outside the EU is 2.4 times more likely to be poor than a child with European parents. The report emphasizes the need to put in place specific social protection tools to ensure the well-being of children, and the importance of “political will” States in this matter.