Child Poverty In Rich Countries 2005 by Unicef

[dogday]

Out of 24 countries surveyed, the only country with more children living in poverty than the US is Mexico!



http://www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/repcard6e.pdf

[Wilms]

1. Dang it , Mexico. We want to be #1.

K E Y F I N D I N G S

At the top of the child poverty league are Denmark and Finland with child poverty
rates of less than 3 per cent. At the bottom are the United States and Mexico, with
child poverty rates of more than 20 per cent (Figure 1).

Over the latest ten-year period for which comparable data are available, the proportion
of children living in poverty has risen in 17 out of 24 OECD countries (Figure 2).

Norway is the only OECD country where child poverty can be described as ‘very low
and continuing to fall’.

Higher government spending on family and social benefits is clearly associated with
lower child poverty rates.

Four out of 13 OECD countries for which 1990s data are available saw a decline in
earnings for the lowest-paid 25 per cent of fathers. Seven countries saw a decline in
earnings for the lowest-paid 10 per cent (Figure 6).

On average, government interventions reduce by 40 per cent the rates of child poverty
that would theoretically result from market forces being left to themselves (Figure 9).

Governments in the countries with the world’s lowest levels of child poverty reduce
‘market poverty’ by 80 per cent or more. Governments in the countries with the
world’s highest poverty rates reduce ‘market poverty’ by only 10 per cent to
15 per cent (Figure 9).

Variation in government policy appears to account for most of the variation in child
poverty levels between OECD countries.

No OECD country devoting 10 per cent or more of GDP to social transfers has a child
poverty rate higher than 10 per cent. No country devoting less than 5 per cent of GDP
to such transfers has a child poverty rate of less than 15 per cent.
There is no fixed ratio between levels of government support and child poverty rates.

Many OECD countries appear to have the potential to reduce child poverty below
10 per cent without a significant increase in overall spending.

In most OECD countries, increases in social spending over the decade of the 1990s
appear to have been allocated mainly to pensions and to health care (Figure 11).

Agreed definitions and measures of poverty are essential if policy targets are to be set
and met.

Relative income poverty measures need to be supplemented by direct
measures of material deprivation.

[silverweb]

2. Just give it a little more time.

We'll be #1 soon enough.

:eyes:

[BringEmOn]

3. No Rich White Xtian Fundamentalist Child Left Behind.

[murray hill farm]

4. and this is misleading!

for example, one of the standards..and there are many..is if a home has hot and cold running water...or central heat and air conditioning. in Mexico..no one has hot and cold running water..well maybe the rich..the same with heat (not needed anyway) and air conditioning...culturally this is not seen as poverty in mexico, it is seen as normal and just fine with everyone..ha! But, these same conditions are rated as signs of poverty..as compared with the USA. actually, without the skewed numbers that do not consider cultural norms for living, the USA is easily number 1.