example, missing out on key development milestones, schooling and essential health care – and these deprivations were experienced in hugely unequal ways, potentially exacerbating existing inequalities. The overall trend from 2012 to 2021 in the EU It has been possible to obtain a complete time series from 2012 to 2021 for the EU27 (Figure 13). For the income year of 2015 (data gathered in 2016) the average rate of child poverty in the EU was 21.4 per cent. There was then a promising drop to 18.5 per cent in 2018, but this was followed by a rebound to 19.2 per cent in 2019, prior to the pandemic. The rate then remained broadly stable at 19.5 and 19.3 per cent in 2020 and 2021, respectively. For individual countries, the rates appear to have fluctuated more substantially. This may be due to a combination of shorter-term impacts of the pandemic and/or ongoing challenges in data collection during this period. This overall picture suggests a stagnation in efforts to reduce child income poverty in the EU. Figure 13. Child relative income poverty rates in the EU, 2012–2021 25 Child income poverty (%) 20.7 21.4 21.4 21.4 20 20.0 19.6 18.5 19.2 19.5 19.3 2019 2020 2021 15 10 Sources: See Technical Appendix Note: As discussed earlier, the EU refers to this indicator as the ‘at risk of poverty’ rate. Also note that the years in the chart refer to the year to which the income relates, not the year of data collection. 5 0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 A summary of overall progress from 2012 to 2021 Figure 14 shows the second key indicator from the league table – the change in average child income poverty rates between 2012–2014 and 2019–2021. → Bars in green represent proportional reductions in child poverty rates of more than 10 per cent. Seventeen countries surpassed this threshold. → Among them, the four countries at the top of the chart – Poland, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania – achieved reductions of more than 30 per cent. → Six other countries were able to reduce child poverty by more than 20 per cent. → Eighteen countries, with blue bars, had relatively stable child poverty rates between plus or minus 10 per cent. 26 Child Poverty in the Midst of Wealth Innocenti Report Card 18