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14,000 children pulled out of poverty since 2011

The consistent poverty rate for children in Ireland decreased from 9.3% in 2011 to 7.7% in 2018, a reduction of 1.6 percentage points.

A new report shows that child poverty rates have reduced substantially for young children, down 12.2 percentage points between 2010 and 2018.

This corresponds to a reduction of 14,000 children living in consistent poverty between 2011 and 2018.

Minister for Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, Roderic O’Gorman (small picture) today announced the publication of  ‘Income, Poverty and Deprivation among Children: A Statistical Baseline Analysis’.

In 2018 almost 190,000 children were living in income poverty (60% median income) and almost 89,000 children were living in deep poverty (50% median income).

Pattern

The pattern of poverty reduction can be attributed to changes in the absolute circumstances of poor children (material deprivation) rather than a closing of the relative gap with better-off children.

However, there were signs of improvement in relative income poverty between 2017 and 2018.

For young adults, the poverty rate is down 10.3 percentage points.

In 2018, Ireland had the lowest poverty rate among children 0-5 in the EU.

Those aged 6-11, however, show a trend of increasing income poverty and consistent poverty.

The report is the first output published by the Child-specific Poverty Research Programme, initiated in late 2019.

Data

It draws from existing data and literature to provide a ‘baseline’ understanding of the situation of children living in poverty.

The report describes families’ financial circumstances at different income levels, providing insights into the depth of poverty and movements into and out of poverty from 2011 to 2018.

It also identifies the main risk factors for experiencing child poverty.

Reduction

The national child poverty target seeks to lift over 70,000 children (aged 0-17) out of consistent poverty by 2020, a reduction of at least two-thirds on the 2011 level.

In order to meet the national child poverty target, the number of children living in consistent poverty would have to decline further by 56,000 between 2018 and 2020.

Author Delma Byrne said that while child poverty rates in Ireland have shown some improvement more recently, poverty among children continues to be a concern, particularly among school-age children.

Minister O’Gorman said: “While we have made real progress in Ireland, we know that poverty continues to steal childhoods and children’s futures, and undermines the economic, social and political well-being of the State.

“Poverty affects not only children’s material living conditions, but also their sense of belonging and the opportunities they have to fully participate in society. Poverty affects children’s futures as empowered, civically engaged, healthy and fulfilled adults.”

Invisible

The Minister said that children and young people are, as individuals, effectively ‘invisible’ in official measures.

Ireland typically has broadly similar child poverty rates compared to the EU average, with two exceptions: in 2018, Ireland had the lowest poverty rate among children 0-5 in the EU; and Ireland was the country with the highest proportion of children age 0-17 living in very low work intensity households in the EU.

Risk

On average, children aged 0-17 experience a similar risk of poverty or social exclusion as their European counterparts (24.1% in Ireland compared to 24.2% in the EU).

While very young children and young adults fare better in Ireland than the EU average, children aged 6-11 have a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than their EU counterparts. 

Statistical analyses demonstrate that lone parenthood and very low work intensity is strongly linked to consistent poverty risk in households with children.