In 2024, 25.9% of children in Malta were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, data issued by Eurostat shows.

This percentage is the highest since 2017, when it stood at over 27%. In 2020 it stood at 22.3%.

In 2024, Malta was higher than the EU average.

19.5 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year, Eurostat said. "This figure represented 24.2% of children under the age of 18, down by 0.6 percentage points (pp) from 2023 (24.8%)."

At the country level, in 2024, the highest values were reported in Bulgaria (35.1%), Spain (34.6%) and Romania (33.8%). In contrast, Slovenia (11.8%), Cyprus (14.8%) and Czechia (15.4%) registered the lowest shares. Malta is the 7th highest in the EU.

Compared with 2023, Romania registered the largest decrease in the share of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2024, -5.2 pp, followed by Ireland (-3.7 pp) and Hungary (-3.3 pp). On the other hand, Finland (+3.5 pp), Croatia (+2.0 pp), Bulgaria and Belgium (both +1.2 pp) observed the largest increases. 

At risk of poverty or social exclusion corresponds to the sum of persons who are either at risk of poverty, or severely materially and socially deprived or living in a household with a very low work intensity.