The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says, on average across OECD countries, 13 per cent of children live in relative income poverty, using numbers from 2016. By far, the worst countries are China, South Africa and Brazil. They are around 30 per cent or more. The two best countries are Finland and Denmark at fewer than five per cent. In Canada, the number is about 15 per cent. In the United States, it’s around 20 per cent. The OECD says, since 2006, child relative poverty rates have increased in 11 of the 21 OECD countries. In Canada, the rate has remained relatively unchanged.
The likelihood of growing up in poverty varies across different types of household and with the employment status of the household. The average poverty rate in households with children and two or more adults is about 10 per cent in Canada. When it’s a single parent household, that number jumps to about 50 per cent.
In terms of households by employment status, in Canada, the child poverty rate is about 10 per cent in working households with at least one child. But in a jobless household, that number rockets up to about 80 per cent.
