In Araba, Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, child poverty has increased since the post-COVID-19 pandemic: 12.2% of children and adolescents suffer from poverty or social exclusion. In Navarre the increase has not accelerated so much, but the poverty rate is 9.8%. This data was communicated on Tuesday by the Childhood Platform through a report based on a survey of the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Poverty data in Spain

In the CAPV, poverty has grown more than in the Spanish State in the last two years, but it is not maintained at the same levels: It is 33% in Spain. Spain is the second country in the European Union with the highest child poverty rate, behind Romania. "There is more poverty than in the rest of the EU and it is also growing at a faster rate," explains Joffre López, head of research, according to Naiz. Most are concentrated in Murcia, Extremadura and Andalusia, where 40% of the youngest are in poverty.

Data at the national level show that the most affected are young people aged between 11 and 17, who live mostly in single-parent families. Foreigners also have a higher risk of poverty: Among children under 16, 21.7% of Spaniards do not have sufficient resources to meet their needs, 40.3% of those from another EU country and 66.1% of adults outside the EU.

Request action from the Administration

The authors of the report conclude that this is a "structural problem" and require solutions for the public administration. Among other things, they call for families to increase financial support and to be longer, which is now up to 3 years old and want them to go up to 6 years old, or they believe that granting EUR 100 per month to children under 18 would be "significant results".

In addition, the Childhood Platform has called for the relaxation of conditions of access to Minimum Income Support and the expansion of public services for children such as dining room, children's school or health services.