site.btaChildren in Bulgaria at Greatest Risk of Poverty, Social Exclusion in EU

In 2024, 19.5 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. This figure represented 24.2% of children under the age of 18, down by 0.6 percentage points (pp) from 2023 (24.8%), Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Commission reported on Wednesday.

At the country level, in 2024, the highest values were reported in Bulgaria (35.1%), Spain (34.6%) and Romania (33.8%). In contrast, Slovenia (11.8%), Cyprus (14.8%) and Czechia (15.4%) registered the lowest shares.

Compared with 2023, Romania registered the largest decrease in the share of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, -5.2 pp, followed by Ireland (-3.7 pp) and Hungary (-3.3 pp). On the other hand, Finland (+3.5 pp), Croatia (+2.0 pp), Bulgaria and Belgium (both +1.2 pp) observed the largest increases.