A new dashboard of child poverty indicators report highlights how social class impacts upon the lived experience of children in Ireland.
The poverty indicators are compiled to assist the government in their mission to reduce consistent child poverty in Ireland to 3% by 2030.
Income is not the only factor in childhood poverty, as the indicators account for education, housing, health, as well as participation in cultural and recreational activities.
“The indicators examine how disadvantage affects children’s daily experiences and long-term opportunities. The objective is to highlight gaps between disadvantaged children and their peers, and track whether gaps are improving over time.”
Waterford’s Deis Schools
Perhaps the most striking statistic relates to school attendance with double the rate of children missing 20 days of more in Primary Schools in Deis Urban Band 1 compared to rural non-Deis schools.
Deis Urban band 1 includes schools which serve the communities with the highest socio-economic disadvantage. There are currently 11 primary schools in Waterford within Deis Urban band 1, with these figures reporting 42.9% of students missing 20 days or more, compared to 19.1% in rural non-Deis schools.
It should be noted that schools in Deis Urban class 1 benefit from smaller class sizes, along with additional funding, services, and staff.
The report noted that educational attainment was key to tackling child poverty.
“Educational attainment is central to the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Those who grow up in poverty on average have lower educational attainment than their better-off peers, and the lower educational attainment accounts for over a quarter of the association between childhood poverty and deprivation in adulthood.”
Results such as these highlight the importance of social welfare schemes and early years care and learning, as engaging the youngest in Irish society can break the cycle of generational poverty.
Living different lives
Among the notable findings, children at risk of poverty aged between 3 and 5 benefit more from early learning and care services.
In the category of Health, children in Deis primary schools were found to have double the rate of obesity as those in Non-Deis primary schools—although this data was based on research done in 2022 and accounts for a small proportion of children in either school-type as the obesity rate was 7% in Deis schools and 3.5% in Non-Deis schools.
Parents’ employment circumstances even impact health experiences of children in the earliest part of their lives as those in a higher professional class were almost twice as likely to breastfeed than those who were unemployed.
“Surveys have shown that children from poorer backgrounds are more likely to have health difficulties; and to be overweight or obese. This has negative implications for their future health and well-being.”
While 21.2% of 0–17-year-olds were found to be at risk of enforced deprivation, this number jumps to 46.3% if those young people are part of a single parent household.
Enforced deprivation is considered as lacking two or more basic necessities such as being unable to afford two properly fitting pairs of shoes, or to heat the house at some point in the past year.
Physical activity and reading as a hobby also drops consistently depending on social class. Those in owner occupied homes had a child deprivation rate of 3.7%, compared to 31.1% in rented or ‘rent free’ housing.
AARON KENT
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
