Barns ekonomiska utsatthet – Årsrapport 2010

This is the seventh annual update to the study on child poverty in Sweden conducted by Professor Tapio Salonen at the request of Save the Children Sweden. The study, entitled Barns ekonomiska utsatthet under 1990-talet: Bidrag till ett kommunalt barnindex (Economic vulnerability of children in Sweden during the 1990s. Contribution to a national child welfare index), addresses the issue of economic vulnerability among children in Sweden.
The main objective of this report is to reflect the changes in children’s economic situation over the last years leading up to 2008, especially in the context of the past two years. It also analyses the financial situation of families with children across the urban areas and municiplities of major Swedish cities. Previous analyses of differences in child poverty rates between city suburbs – child poverty is also related to income segregation between different parts of the major cities – have also been included in this report, with special focus being given to children of immigrant parents and children from single parent households.
Child poverty is defined on an index combining two factors – low levels of relative income or living with income support (a guaranteed minimum level established by the Swedish Parliament in 1998). Save the Children Sweden has worked to raise awareness of child poverty in Sweden since releasing its first report in 2002 calling for a national action plan to address the issue and combat the growing incidence of child poverty. The studies on child poverty are a first step towards a child index, which would annually reflect changes in various aspects of children’s welfare at the municipal level.