A recent study by the European Statistical Office Eurostat showed that the state of child poverty and their social exclusion is very well regulated in Slovenia. Namely, Slovenia is far ahead of the rest of the European Union in protecting children from poverty, as it is at the tail end of countries in terms of the risk of poverty or social exclusion of children. Spain, on the other hand, which is led by Tanja Fajon and Luka Mesec’s socialist colleagues, has many more children on the brink of poverty.
Eurostat presented data on the state of child poverty and social exclusion. The results for Slovenia are encouraging, as we have the lowest percentage of children at risk. Among the countries of the European Union, Romania recorded the highest rate of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2020 (41.5 percent), followed by Bulgaria (36.2 percent) and Spain (31.8 percent). Slovenia has the lowest level of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion (12.1 percent), followed by the Czech Republic (12.9 percent).
The bad thing about Slovenia is that in our country, it does not matter what the statistics say; what matters is which populist platitudes Tanja Fajon will use in her TV appearance when talking about the non-functioning housing policies of the SD party or what false promises Luka Mesec will give to the workers. In Slovenia, the left is still gaining its political points on the problem of poverty. Statistics that show that the situation is actually good in Slovenia do not even reach the central media outlets.
In 2020, 24,2 percent of all children (under the age of 18) in the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, compared to 21,7 percent of adults (18-64 years) and 20,4 percent of older people (65 years or older).
Factors influencing the risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU in 2020 included:
- type of household — households composed of a single person with dependent children (42.1 %), single persons (33.2 %) and two adults with three or more dependent children (29.6 %) had the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion;
- work intensity — 71.9 % of the population aged less than 60 years living in very low work intensity households with dependent children were at risk of poverty;
- level of education — 50.5 % of children whose parents’ level of education was low were at risk of poverty compared with 7.7 % of children whose parents’ level of education was high;
- migrant background — children with at least one parent with a migrant background were at a greater risk of poverty than children whose parents were both native born (32.9 % compared with 15.3 %);
- living conditions — 14.1 % of households composed of a single person with dependent children were severely materially deprived compared with 7.5 % of all households with dependent children.
Anita Gužvič
