Almost 20 million children in the European Union countries were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023, EurActiv reports, citing a study by the EU statistical service Eurostat.

Moreover, this total figure hides significant differences between EU countries. The highest rates were recorded in Romania and Spain: 39% and 34.5%, respectively, and the lowest in Slovenia, Finland and the Netherlands: 10.7%, 13.8% and 14.3%, respectively.

The European Action Plan for the Protection of Social Rights of the Population sets a goal to free 15 million people from poverty or social exclusion by 2030, while at least 5 million of them should be children. The COVID-19 pandemic and skyrocketing inflation have made it more difficult to achieve this goal. As EurActiv notes, the latest Eurostat data shows how difficult this goal is to achieve.

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