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

Summary

• 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.