Relative poverty among children in the same group of countries ranges from 28.4% in Costa Rica to only 3.6% in Finland. To take a few examples, Belgium and Finland are similarly wealthy in gross domestic product per capita terms, but Belgium’s relative child poverty rate is three times higher than Finland’s. Chile is 33% richer than Mexico, but Mexico has a lower child poverty rate. OECD countries spend an average of 1% of GDP on a mixture of child benefits, family benefits and childcare allowances, with countries that spend more also tending to achieve the lowest levels of child poverty. Unsurprisingly, meagre, badly targeted benefits rarely do much to reduce child poverty.

Source: The Edge Markets November 14, 2019 03:36 UTC