Summary

Child poverty is an epidemic in most developing countries, and also exists in developed countries, including Australia. In many developed countries the official definition of poverty used for statistical purposes is based on relative income. More than 30% of children in developing countries ¿ about 600 million ¿ live on less than US $1 a day. Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation, usually it is a child under the age of 5. Poverty hits children hardest and creates an environment that is damaging to children's development in every way ¿ mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. UNICEF recently released a report comparing life for children in 24 OECD countries. Australia ranked second from the bottom, with 12% of this nation's children living in households where the total income was less than half the country's median; 10% of the child population lives in households where no adult is employed; many will have only one parent and, as two-thirds of single parents have left school by the end of year 10, these children are likely to become part of a generational cycle of poverty. This book examines child poverty from a global and Australian perspective. What can be done to give impoverished children a better chance in life? Chapter 1: Global Child Poverty Chapter 2: Child Poverty in Australia Glossary; Facts and Figures; Additional Resources; Index