Over 9% Of Icelandic Children Live With Social Shortages

A new report from UNICEF in Iceland shows that 9.1% of Icelandic children live with a lack of material needs.

RÚV reports that about 6,100 children in Iceland between the ages of 1 and 15 lack social and material needs. This number is twice what it was in 2009.

The percentage of children lacking adequate housing went from 8.9% to 13.4% between 2009 and 2014. At the same time, 4.9% of children lack adequate clothing and 3.2% do not get enough to eat.

In social matters, 5.1% of children lack an adequate social life, such as being able to invite friends over for a birthday party, while 4.9% do not have enough recreational activities at their disposal, and 3% lack the funds to be able to participate in school-related activities that cost money. These figures are about twice what they were in 2009.

In the general scheme of things, 60.6% of respondents said they did not lack for any of these things – down from 77.1% in 2009.

The parents of children most likely to be struggling with these shortages, overall, lacked a university education, lived in rented housing, and earned no greater than minimum wage.