Eurostat released data ahead of Universal Children’s Day (November 20) showing that one in four children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU. In 2015, around 25 million children, or 26.9 percent of the EU population from the ages of zero to 17 years were at risk of poverty or social exclusion as a result of living in households at risk of poverty. The share o poverty and social exclusion is highest in Romania (46.8 percent), Bulgaria (43.7 percent) and Greece (37.8 percent).
At the opposite end of the scale are the children of Sweden, where only 14 percent face problems more commonplace in the Balkans. Other Nordic countries whose children are more well-off than peers in other countries are those living in Finland (14.9 percent) and Denmark (15.7 percent).
The highest increase regarding children suddenly risking poverty or social exclusion was noted in Greece where the rate was 28.7 percent in 2010 and shot up to 37.8 percent in 2015 (+9.1 percent), Cyprus (+7.1 percent) and Italy (4 percent). In Latvia, however, the rate had decreased from 42.2 percent in 2010 to 31.1 percent in 2015 (-10.9 percent), followed by Bulgaria (-6.1 percent) and Poland (-4.2 percent).
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