UNICEF Report on Child Poverty

Posted on May 30, 2012 by townsend

• Child poverty in UK set to increase as result of austerity drive, says Unicef, By Amelia Gentleman, May 29, 2012, The Guardian: “The government’s austerity drive is set to reverse the strides made in reducing child poverty in the UK, research published by Unicef on Tuesday suggests. The study indicates that during the early years of the recession, the UK was more successful than other rich countries in reducing child poverty and protecting children from deprivation, but warns that spending cuts will swiftly undermine this progress…”
• US has second-highest rate of childhood poverty in developed world, only Romania is worse, By Ashley Portero, May 30, 2012, International Business Times: “The United States has the second-highest rate of childhood poverty in the developed world, according to a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which concluded that nations with comprehensive government programs designed to protect vulnerable children had the lowest rates of child poverty and deprivation. Out of the 35 wealthiest countries analyzed by UNICEF, only one, Romania, had a child poverty rate above the 23 percent rate recorded in the U.S. The rate is based on the definition of relative poverty used by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which states a child is living in poverty if he or she is growing up in a household where disposable income, when adjusted for family size and compensation, is less than 50 percent of the median disposable income for the country in question…”
• Canada lags on fighting child poverty, report finds, By Laurie Monsebraaten, May 29, 2012, Toronto Star: “Canada falls below most of its international peers when it comes to fighting child poverty, says a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund being released Tuesday. With a child poverty rate of 13.3 per cent, Canada ranks 24th out of 35 industrialized nations, behind the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and most of northern Europe, says the UNICEF report. Overall, the Netherlands and Nordic countries have the lowest rates of child poverty, hovering at about 7 per cent, almost half Canada’s rate. Meantime, the United States and some of the southern European countries have the highest. (Iceland has the lowest child poverty rate at 4.7 per cent and Romania has the highest at 25.5 per cent. The U.S. rate is 23 per cent.) When it comes to the size of the gap between child poverty and a nation’s overall poverty rate, Canada fares somewhat better at 18 out of 35, the report notes…”