UNICEF reports 69 million children live in poverty across world's 40 wealthiest nations

12/6/2023 3:30:40 AM

(MENAFN) In a report unveiled on Wednesday, UNICEF revealed that 69 million children, equivalent to more than one in five, are living in poverty across the world's 40 wealthiest nations.

The report criticized Britain and France for their notably poor standings in this regard. This statistic persists despite a decrease in child poverty rates observed in the periods from 2012 to 2014 and 2019 to 2021, with an approximately 8 percent decline in the 40 European Union and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) affluent countries that were assessed.

“This is equivalent to around 6 million children out of a total child population of 291 million,” As stated by UNICEF Innocenti, the research arm of the United Nations agency.

However, by the conclusion of 2021, the number of children living in poverty in those countries still exceeded 69 million.

“For most children this means that they may grow up without enough nutritious food, clothes, school supplies or a warm place to call home,” declared Bo Viktor Nylund of UNICEF Innocenti, emphasizing the repercussions of these challenges on the physical and mental well-being of young individuals.

The UNICEF figure relies on relative poverty, defined as approximately 60 percent of the national median income, commonly utilized in developed nations to determine their poverty thresholds.

In its report, UNICEF urged for proactive measures to safeguard children's well-being and emphasized the need for political determination among the surveyed countries. The report highlighted that a nation's wealth alone does not inherently alleviate children from poverty, underscoring the necessity for deliberate action despite a country's economic status.

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