Around 21,000 Maltese children are estimated to be at risk of poverty.

This amounts to 28.2 per cent of the total population.

The figures refer to 2015 and are worse than the figures in 2010 when they constituted 26.7 per cent of the total population.

On a scale, the Maltese children at risk of poverty are higher than the EU average, which stands at 26.9 per cent.

 These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on the occasion of the Universal Children's Day celebrated on 20 November

In 2015, around 25 million children, or 26.9% of the population aged 0 to 17, in the European Union were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

This means that they were living in households in at least one of the following three conditions: at-risk-of-poverty after social transfers (income poverty), severely materially deprived or with very low work intensity.

Since 2010, the proportion of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU has slightly decreased, from 27.5% in 2010 to 26.9% in 2015. However contrasting trends were observed across the EU Member States.

Share of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion rate highest in Romania and Bulgaria, lowest in EU Nordic Member States

In 2015 more than a third of children were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in six Member States: Romania (46.8%), Bulgaria (43.7%), followed by Greece (37.8%), Hungary (36.1%), Spain (34.4%) and Italy (33.5%). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest shares of children being at risk of poverty or social exclusion were recorded in Sweden (14.0%), Finland (14.9%) and Denmark (15.7%), ahead of Slovenia (16.6%), the Netherlands (17.2%), the Czech Republic and Germany (both 18.5%) in 2015.

Largest decrease in children at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate in Latvia, highest increase in Greece

In approximately half of the EU Member States, the at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate has grown from 2010 to 2015, with the highest increases being recorded in Greece (from 28.7% in 2010 to 37.8% in 2015, or +9.1 percentage points), Cyprus (+7.1 pp), and Italy (+4.0 pp). In contrast, the largest decrease among EU Member States was observed in Latvia (from 42.2% to 31.3%, or -10.9 pp), followed by Bulgaria (-6.1 pp) and Poland (-4.2 pp). At the EU level, the percentage of the total population aged below 18 being at risk of poverty or social exclusion decreased by 0.6 pp from 27.5% in 2010 to 26.9% in 2015.