The share of children under 18 at risk of poverty or social exclusion in Bulgaria in 2020 was 36.2%. Although it dropped from 47.9% in 2015, it is still one of the highest in the EU and significantly higher than the EU average, which is 24.2%, according to a report titled “Un/Equal Childhood: Deep Dive in Child Poverty and Social Exclusion in Bulgaria”
The report is part of a project of the same name, also covering the policies, programmes, services, budgets and mechanisms to tackle the problem, implemented by a team of the Institute for Population and Human Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IPHS-BAS), the institute said on its website.
Large families (nearly 67% of two-adult families with three or more dependent children) are most at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The next risk group comprises single parents (nearly 49% of single-parent families with dependent children). Children at risk of poverty or social exclusion whose parents have primary or less than primary education are ten times more than children whose parents have higher education. Children in households with very low work intensity (less than 20%) account for the highest share of poor children – 90.3%, which, however, decreases progressively as parents’ work intensity increases, the report finds.
The project was funded by UNICEF-Bulgaria and implemented in partnership with the For Our Children Foundation and the National Network for Children. The UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), as well as an interdepartmental expert working group at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy contributed to the analysis, the institute said.
The report was prepared by a research team headed by Dr Ivanka Shalapatova.
The deep dives are designed to provide the information and evidence base that governments need to develop evidence-based European Child Guarantee National Action Plans.
