CSO Child Deprivation 2021 report reveals sobering level of child poverty in Ireland

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has issued results from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) Module on Child Deprivation 2021. The SILC in Ireland is the official source of data on household and individual income and provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as the at risk of poverty rate, the consistent poverty rate, and rates of enforced deprivation.

The principal theme of the 2021 SILC module was child-specific deprivation and the key findings of the report make for sobering reading. 

They reveal: 

One in ten (9.7%) single-parent households could not afford to pay for school trips or school events for their children compared with 2.0% of two-parent households.

More than one in ten (12.4%) single-parent households were unable to afford two pairs of properly fitting shoes for their children. The comparable rate for two-parent households was 1.0%.

A fifth (20.6%) of households where nobody worked were unable to afford to pay for regular leisure activities (e.g. swimming, playing an instrument, youth organisations, etc.) for their children. This compares with 5.2% of households where one person worked and less than 1% (0.6%) of households with two workers.

Four in ten (39.2%) households that rent could not afford a one-week holiday away from home for their children, five times higher than the rate for owner-occupied households (7.9%).

One in ten (9.6%) households that rent were unable to afford new clothes for their children, compared with 1.1% of owner-occupied households.

One in ten (10.3%) households without an Irish-born parent could not afford to buy new clothes for their children compared with 2.8% of households with at least one Irish-born parent.

Parent(s) were unable to afford new clothes for their children in 4.3% of households. In 10.5% of households, parent(s) were unable to afford new clothes for themselves.

Commenting on today’s publication, Gerry Reilly, Senior Statistician, in the Income, Wealth and Consumption (ICW) Division, said:

“In the 2021 SILC module, information on 13 child-specific deprivation items was gathered from households with at least one child aged less than 16 on the date of interview. Typically a parent of the child/children in the household provided this information.

“Overall, one in ten (9.2%) households with children were deprived of two or more of the 13 items. An analysis of deprivation by household characteristics shows that single-parent households, households with no worker, and households that rent had higher rates of child-specific deprivation. One in four (24.6%) single-parent households were deprived of two or more items, compared with one in twenty (4.8%) two-parent households. In households where nobody worked, 34.5% experienced two or more deprivation items which is more than 10 times the rate (3.0%) for households where two persons worked. One in five (20.1%) households that rent experienced two or more deprivation items. The comparable rate for owner-occupied households was one in forty (2.5%)."

Parents appear to prioritise resources for the purchase of clothes for their children over themselves. In 4.3% of households parent(s) were unable to afford new clothes for their child/children and in 10.5% of households parent(s) were unable to afford new clothes for themselves.