Canada’s child poverty rate dips

Following the recession, Canada’s child poverty rate dropped, reports CBC.

According to a UNICEF study of 41 industrialized countries, our domestic rate dipped from 23% to 21% between 2008 and 2011. That resulted in roughly 180,000 children being pulled out of poverty.

In comparison, the average child poverty rate for all countries studied rose by about 3%. A release by UNICEF states, “In 23 of the 41 countries analyzed, child poverty has increased since 2008. In Ireland, Croatia, Latvia, Greece and Iceland, rates rose by over 50%.”

In fact, more than 2 million children “have sunk below the poverty line in the world’s most affluent countries, [which] bring[s] the total number of children in the developed world living in poverty to an estimated 76.5 million.”

Read: Understand income inequality

And despite overall domestic improvements, Canadians shouldn’t celebrate just yet. As CBC reports, “For Canada’s most vulnerable children, conditions deteriorated…[The report shows] the child poverty gap, the difference between the median income of poor children and the poverty line, increased by 2%.” Read more.

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