Europe: a fifth of children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion and the rate has barely improved in a decade

The only countries that maintain lower rates, such as the Netherlands, Slovenia or Denmark, They achieve it with direct transfers to families with children. They are not policies that serve to promote birth rates, as they were designed decades ago. Because, for example, in the Netherlands, where these direct transfers are more generous, the birth rate is at 1.4%, its lowest historical level.

Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Commission, publishes each year its AROPE index, which measures the risk of poverty or social exclusion of households. They are people who are “severely materially and socially disadvantaged or who live in a home with a very low work intensity or in which no one works. The general rate measures “the total population that is at risk of poverty or social exclusion.”

The data, updated this week, show the entrenchment of these rates. 22.1% of Europeans who live in households with dependent children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. It is 19.8% among those who live in homes without dependent children. But this rate, the average of the 27 countries of the European Union, has enormous differences when you go down to the details of each country. And it could be said that, with some exceptions, it also has a geographical profile, since the highest rates do not exactly point to the poorest countries, but to those that have public policies that make minor transfers or no transfers to households with children.

The poverty or social exclusion rate of those who live in Spain in homes with dependent children rises to 29.9% of the population. Spain, with a per capita income that is practically double that of Bulgaria, has almost one point more population at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Near Spain are its Mediterranean neighbors, such as Italy (25.5%), France (23.8%) or Greece (28.5%). Luxembourg also appears at the top of the table. The richest country in the block has 22.9% of people living in homes with children in a situation of poverty or social exclusion. It is more than double that of Slovenia (10.4%), a country three times poorer.

Among the other rich countries in the bloc, 20.6% of German and Irish households with children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as do 16.7% of Belgians and 19.4% of Swedes. The best data, in addition to Slovenia (10.4%) and the Netherlands (11.7%), appear in Cyprus (12.2%) and Denmark (12.2%).

Having children increases the chances of living in a household at risk of poverty or social exclusion, but there are exceptions. If at a European level this rate is 22.1% in homes with children and 19.8% in homes without children, in Spain the difference is more than eight points. While 29.9% of people who live in Spain in homes with children do so in a situation of risk of poverty or social exclusion, for those who do not have children this rate is 21.5%. These differences are also seen in countries like Italy or France, but the same does not happen throughout Europe.

In the Baltic countries the rate of poverty or social exclusion of those living in households without children double that of those who live in homes with children. This is due to a powerful system of direct transfers to families with children to prevent them from growing up in poverty or social exclusion.

The evolution of these data during the last decade is positive, but very slow and few countries are improving rapidly. If now 22.1% of families living in homes with children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 10 years ago it was 25.3%. And in countries like Germany, with practically full employment for years before the pandemic, it rises, from 17.1% a decade ago to 20.6% today.