Eurostat: in the EU, a quarter of children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Worst numbers in Romania. Italy is doing poorly

In the European Union in 2023, nearly 20 million children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This figure – as reported by a Eurostat survey issued today – amounted to 24.8% of children under 18, basically unchanged from 2022, with just a slight rise by 0.1 percent points. Nationwide, in 2023, the highest numbers were reported for Romania (39.0%), Spain (34.5%) and Bulgaria (33.9%). Italy, which is in the fifth worst place of this “list”, has a percentage of about 27%, two points higher than the European average (25%). Conversely, Slovenia (10.7%), Finland (13.8%) and the Netherlands (14.3%) reported the lowest numbers of children at risk of poverty.Gianni Borsa