Measuring child poverty

Children constitute about one quarter of the world population. Globally, children are more likely to be poor than adults. In fact, estimates say that they are over twice as likely to be poor as adults. It is estimated that in 2017 17.5% children lived in poverty, vis à vis 7.9% of adults. Child Poverty is also a widespread phenomenon, in low as in high income countries, Child poverty has many long-lasting consequences on children’s lives and future opportunities. Additionally, poor children are more vulnerable to shocks of various kind, including shocks from extreme weather and natural disasters, and from conflict and violence. Measuring child poverty is therefore of crucial importance to implement effective policies. Monetary poverty provides the obvious tool to measure child poverty. However, this does not come without challenges, as monetary aggregates are calculated at the household level, and disregard intra-household inequalities. Moreover, equivalence scales conventionally used to calculate monetary poverty can substantially underestimate child poverty. Accompanying monetary with multidimensional measures of child poverty can provide a more comprehensive and realistic picture of children’s welfare.