EU data shows 24% of children in Malta at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Figures issued by the EU’s statistics bureau this week showed that 24% of children in Malta are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Over the past six years, there has been a slight improvement, with the figure reaching a high of 32% in 2013 and then steadily decreasing  on an annual basis to 31.3% in 2014, 28.2% in 2015 and 24% in 2016.

In a statement on Thursday, the Labour Party expressed their satisfaction that there are a total of 6,000 less children at risk of poverty or social exclusion, since Labour has been in government.

It encouraged the government to keep working on decreasing the number even further.

When taking the rest of the European Union into consideration, the Eurostat data showed that a total of 24.8 million children, under the age of 18, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year.

This means that a quarter of the EU population were living in households that either were at risk after social transfers, had a very low work intensity or were severely materially deprived. Any one or combination of the above are indicators of being at risk of poverty or social exclusion, as defined by the study.

Figures showed that children at highest risk were those in Romania (49.2%), Bulgaria (45.6%),  Serbia (40.3%) and Greece (37.5%), though on average there have been significant decreases since 2010.

On the opposite end of the scale were Denmark, at 13.8% of those under 18 being at risk, Finland (14.7%) and Slovenia (14.9%).