Income poverty in households with children: Finland 1987-2011

Abstract

The child poverty rate has increased noticeably in Finland since the mid-1990s. In this paper, we use register-based data to analyse how parents’ labour market status influences the likelihood of households with children being found in poverty, as measured by the equivalent taxable household income, and particularly whether and how these effects have varied over the study period 1987-2011. In households with parents in unemployment or outside the labour force, the likelihood of poverty increased markedly during the study period, as compared to those with employed parents. Growing divisions in society might be one reason to the development. The contribution of education and other characteristics on the difference in the poverty risk by labour market status is minor in single-parent households, and only slightly larger in two-parent households.