Nordic countries have the lowest levels
of child poverty in the developed world, due in large part to their
generous public spending on benefits for families, according to a
report released Tuesday by the U.N. Children's Fund. On the other end
of the spectrum, the United States and Mexico had the worst rates of
child poverty in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development -- a group of the wealthiest countries. Some 40 million to
50 million children in rich countries live in relative poverty, UNICEF
estimates. Statistics were available for only 24 of 30 OECD states. The
report by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center in Florence, Italy, based
its findings on the number of children growing up in households with an
income less than half the national median. Rated the best were Denmark,
at 2.4 percent; Finland, at 2.8 percent; Norway, at 3.4 percent, and
Sweden, at 4.2 percent. At the bottom end of the table were Mexico, at
27.7 percent, and the United States, at 21.9 percent. The report said
U.S. child poverty ''dropped significantly'' in the 1990s, when
families benefited from an employment boom and higher wages, but the
problem continues.[more]
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