8% of children are suffering from deprivation in Luxembourg
“Investing in Children to break the vicious circle of disadvantage” is the European Recommendation that was adopted in at the European level in 2013.
A common indicator to all European countries
To monitor progress in the fight against poverty and social exclusion, LISER propose to use at the European level an indicator taking into account accurate living conditions of the children (in comparison with the usual indicators measuring the living conditions of the household or of their parents). The indicator is the child-specific deprivation rate, which represents, the proportion of children (from 1 to 15 years) lacking (for affordability reasons) at least three of the following 17 items:
- Some new clothes
- Two pairs of shoes
- Fresh fruits & vegetables daily
- Meat, chicken, fish daily
- Suitable books
- Outdoor leisure equipment
- Indoor games
- Leisure activities
- Celebrations
- Invite friends
- School trips
- Holiday
- Replace worn-out furniture
- Arrears
- Internet
- Home adequately warm
- Car
Luxembourg is ranked fourth in EU28 behind Sweden, Finland and Denmark
Deprivation was suffered by 8% of children in Luxembourg. In the EU league, the figure shows that Luxembourg is one of the best performers regarding the child-specific deprivation indicator. However, this average hides a large diversity among children in the country. Indeed, 23% of children living below the poverty line are deprived. These children who cumulates disadvantages are of particular concern.es disadvantages are of particular concern.
The importance of tackling child poverty was recognised in 2013 at the European level when the European Recommendation on Investing in Children to break the vicious circle of disadvantage was adopted. This recommendation calls on Member States to mobilize to combat child poverty and exclusion as soon as possible in order to enable children to reach their full potential. This recommendation stresses the importance of investing in children, fighting poverty and social exclusion, and taking full account of the well-being of children, and urges Member States to review their policies in this area.
The EU commonly agreed indicators already includes an indicator of material deprivation which is widely used by EU countries and the Commission to monitor progress in the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the context of the EU cooperation in the social field. Although this indicator is used to monitor the deprivation situation of the whole population, the list of items is the same for all age groups and is collected at the household or adult levels. However, the best way to provide accurate information on the concrete living conditions of children in the EU, without making assumptions about the sharing of resources within the household, is to develop indicators based on information on the specific situation of children. Such information is collected each 3 years in a thematic module of EU-SILC. Based on a systematic item by item robustness analysis, the final list of items proposed by Guio et al. (2012) for the measurement of child deprivation, subsequently confirmed by Guio et al. (2017), consists of 12 “child-specific” and 5 “household” items. Are considered as deprived, the children lacking at least three of the following items:
- Child: Some new clothes
- Child: Two pairs of shoes
- Child: Fresh fruits & vegetables daily
- Child: Meat, chicken, fish daily
- Child: Suitable books
- Child: Outdoor leisure equipment
- Child: Indoor games
- Child: Leisure activities
- Child: Celebrations
- Child: Invite friends
- Child: School trips
- Child: Holiday
- Household: Replace worn-out furniture
- Household: Arrears
- Household: Internet
- Household: Home adequately warm
- Household: Car
Only children lacking the item for affordability reasons (not due to preferences) are considered as deprived of the item. The figure presents this rate for the EU countries.
Deprivation was suffered by 8% of children in Luxembourg. In the EU league, the figure shows that Luxembourg is one of the best performers regarding the child-specific deprivation indicator. However, this average rate hides a large diversity of situations among children in the country. Indeed, 23% of children living below the income poverty line are deprived. These children who cumulate disadvantages are of particular concern.
References:
GUIO Anne-Catherine, GORDON David, MARLIER Eric, NAJERA Hector, POMATI Marco. Towards an EU measure of child deprivation. Child Indicators Research, 2017
Guio, A.-C., Gordon, D. and Marlier, E. (2012), “Measuring material deprivation in the EU: Indicators for the whole population and child-specific indicators”, Eurostat Methodologies and working papers, Publications office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
This indicator is computed on the basis of the data set of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). EU-SILC is the reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution and social inclusion in the EU.
EU-SILC is a multi-purpose instrument which focuses mainly on income. However, information on social exclusion, housing conditions, labour, education and health information is also obtained. The reference population in EU-SILC includes all private households and their current members residing in the territory of the countries at the time of the data collection. Persons living in collective households and in institutions are generally excluded from the target population. In EU-SILC, data relating to the living conditions of children are not collected from the children themselves but from the adult answering the “household questionnaire” (household respondent). According to the survey protocol to be followed by countries, if in a given household at least one child does not have an item, it is then assumed that all the children belonging to that household lack that item. For most child-specific items, the information relates to children aged between 1 and 15 (i.e. these items are collected in households with at least one child in this age bracket). Therefore, the child deprivation indicator covers only children aged between 1 and 15. One item is collected only in households with at least one child attending school (school trips).
EU-SILC cross-sectional Users’ Data Base 2014– version of September 2016
In Romania, the child-specific deprivation rate reaches 71%. This means that 71% of children lack at least 3 items out of a list of 17 items.
