An alarming 19.0% of children and teenagers in Cyprus last year were at risk of poverty or social exclusion compared with 22.5% of adults aged over 65.
This is what data released on Thursday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, shows.
As for the EU at large, 24.2% of children and teenagers (less than 18 years old) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2020.
And this compared with 21.7% of adults (18 to 64 years old) and 20.4% of older people (65 years old or over).
Among the EU countries, Romania recorded the highest rate of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion (41.5%) in 2020, followed by Bulgaria (36.2%), Spain (31.8%) and Greece (31.5%).
The lowest percentages were recorded in Slovenia (12.1%), Czechia (12.9%), Denmark (13.5%) and Finland (14.5%).
In its press release, Eurostat also focuses on the factors that influenced the risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU in 2020.
The 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.
The type of household: households composed of a single person with dependent children (42.1%), single-person households (33.2%) and households composed of two adults with three or more dependent children (29.6 %) had the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion.
The 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%)Â and living conditions: 14.1% of households composed of a single person with dependent children were severely materially and socially deprived compared with 7.5% of all households with dependent children.
