The number of children living in poverty will be reduced from 61,000 to 15,000 when basing the poverty line on the 3-year criteria of the Social Democratic Party
According to Statistics Denmark, there were 61,200 children living in poverty in 2018 compared to 64,500 the year before. This means that there has been a reduction of about 3,000 children. The number indicates the number of children in families with low income for one year.
There is a high turnover in the group of children living one year in relative poverty. About half of them are out 1 year later due to increases in the parents’ income.
Prior to the elections, the Social Democratic Party indicated that their new poverty line should be based on a 3-year criteria.
Using registry data from Statistics Denmark, CEPOS has calculated that approximately 14,900 children are living in relative poverty based on this 3-year criteria.
Among all the 36 OECD countries, Denmark has the second lowest proportion of children living in the low-income group.