Transformations and Persistence of Child Poverty in Portugal

Abstract

This paper presents the main data on child poverty in Portugal from Eurostat's EU-SILC, in comparison with the European Union and with selected European countries in the period of 2003 to 2020. These data are, first, contextualized by a discussion of the concept of child poverty, reflecting on its potentials and limitations from the framework of childhood and poverty. Secondly, it is Eurostat's own concept of poverty that is discussed, showing its potential and limitations on the data on child poverty. It is underlined that Eurostat statistics tend to underestimate the extent of child poverty in Europe. The data itself shows that child poverty is very relevant in Portuguese society (18.4% of children – average of 2003-2020). This especially affects certain types of families with children and is always higher than the general (at risk of) poverty rate. Portuguese results are not very different from the territories chosen for comparison, being even the least onerous in all of southern Europe. The analysis of the EU-SILC results ends with the demonstration that the social support provided by the state does not have a significant impact on the reduction of child poverty, in contrast to what happens in relation to the elderly, indicating that the social support goes, mainly, to retired people. This is especially relevant in the context of a country where there hasn’t been the replacement of generations for a long time (low synthetic fertility index).

Received: 18 March 2024 / Accepted: 2 July 2024 / Published: 05 September 2024