Three in four Rosengård children 'live in poverty'
TT/The Local/rm - [email protected]
Published: 12 Mar, 2012 CET.
Updated: Mon 12 Mar 2012 10:35 CET
In the Malmö district of Rosengård over 70 percent of children are living in relative poverty, according to fresh figures from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyran, SCB), which measures the growing economic divides across the country.
“It is unfortunately a trend that we can see all over Europe, that the gap between certain groups is widening,“ said Hans Swärd, professor of social work at the Lund University, to news agency TT. At the behest of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), Statistics Sweden has measured poverty levels among Sweden’s children and youth. The figures build on how many families have a disposable income 60 percent below the average for the population. “It is a recognized EU-measurement to assess financial vulnerability. In the calculations one allows for the size of the family and the number of adults,” said Petter Wikström, SCB statistician, to TT. The results show that the number of poor children differs across Sweden, with Rosengård standing out from the rest. There, 71 percent of all children are living in poverty, compared to 51 in the Stockholm suburb Rinkeby/Kista and 50 in Gothenburg’s Angered. In Stockholm suburbs Danderyd and Täby, however, the corresponding number is six percent. According to minister for children and the elderly, Maria Larsson, the gaps are a problem. “We have a large responsibility to give kids as similar preconditions as possible. To strengthen the families’ economies we increased the country’s standard for support for low-income families with older children and youths at the beginning of the year. We have also increased parts of the housing allowance for families with children,” she said to TT.
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“It is unfortunately a trend that we can see all over Europe, that the gap between certain groups is widening,“ said Hans Swärd, professor of social work at the Lund University, to news agency TT.
At the behest of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), Statistics Sweden has measured poverty levels among Sweden’s children and youth.
The figures build on how many families have a disposable income 60 percent below the average for the population.
“It is a recognized EU-measurement to assess financial vulnerability. In the calculations one allows for the size of the family and the number of adults,” said Petter Wikström, SCB statistician, to TT.
The results show that the number of poor children differs across Sweden, with Rosengård standing out from the rest.
There, 71 percent of all children are living in poverty, compared to 51 in the Stockholm suburb Rinkeby/Kista and 50 in Gothenburg’s Angered.
In Stockholm suburbs Danderyd and Täby, however, the corresponding number is six percent.
According to minister for children and the elderly, Maria Larsson, the gaps are a problem.
“We have a large responsibility to give kids as similar preconditions as possible. To strengthen the families’ economies we increased the country’s standard for support for low-income families with older children and youths at the beginning of the year. We have also increased parts of the housing allowance for families with children,” she said to TT.
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