A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ECONOMIC WELFARE OF EUROPEAN CHILDREN

A comparative survey of industrialised countries, the Luxembourg Income Study, has measured the economic welfare of children in the 1980s. Twelve countries are European: Germany, Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland, and four are non-European: Australia, Canada, the United States and Israel. In some countries trends can be measured from the end of 1960s. The proportion of deprived children is higher in non-European countries (12 to 23%) than in Europe (3 to 13%). It is also much higher in single-parent families (6 to 64%) than in two-parent families (1 to 13%). At best, the economic status of children has stayed constant over time although it has deteriorated over the last 25 years in two major countries: the United Kingdom and the United States.