It might be thought that richer countries would be more successful in tackling child
poverty. However, Figure 2 shows that there is only a weak tendency for richer countries
to have lower child poverty rates.9 This can be seen by comparing pairs of countries, for
example:
→ Spain (ES) and Slovenia (SI) have similar levels of per capita national income – below
the average among this group of countries – but Slovenia has a far lower child poverty
rate (10 per cent) than Spain (28 per cent).
→ Similarly, the United States (US) has a very similar national income per person to
Denmark’s (DK) but an average child poverty rate between 2019 and 2021 that is
more than double that of Denmark’s (although the United States did show some
improvement in 2021).
→ Switzerland (CH) has a national income per person four times that of Czechia (CZ) but
a child poverty rate over 6 percentage points higher.
Thus high national income is no guarantee of success in tackling child poverty, and richer
countries within the Report Card have much to learn from poorer ones.
Figure 2.
National income and child poverty, 2019 – 2021
35
Sources:
See Technical Appendix
CO
30
RO
ES
MX
BG
Child poverty (%) (2019–2021)
US
IT
25
LU
GR
CL
20
NZ GB
SK
LT
HR
15
PL
FR
PT MT
AT
SE
CA
LV
CY
EE
KR
JP
CH
AU
DE
BE
NL
IE
NO
CZ
FI
SI
10
DK
5
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
Gross national income per capita (constant 2015 US$, average for 2019–2021)
12
Child Poverty in the Midst of Wealth
Innocenti Report Card 18
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