Child poverty in Norway

Poverty rate and measuring poverty

Norway is the only country whose child poverty rate has decreased significantly. Norway is special for its high single motherhood rate but low child poverty rate.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion (Now: Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion) is now working on indicators such as income, wealth and housing, etc. how they are related to the poverty.

Immigrant children

See also: Immigration to Norway

In 2004, around 11% of Norwegian live under poverty lines compared to 32% of immigrants who are in poor condition. The child poverty is in the same pattern that only 6% of Norwegian children lived in poverty, while 29% of immigrant children came from poor income families in 1998. However, further surveys have implied that compared to the Norwegian children, the immigrant children feel more enjoyment and achievement in school and have more contacts with teachers –– they tend to be more optimist and active when study. A survey conducted by Grødem, Anne Skevik (2008) indicated that how children between 10-12 years old enjoy school, by poverty and immigrant status: nearly 55% poor immigrants show interest in school compared to only 40% normal -income sample express satisfaction towards the class.

Aid policy

In Norway culture, there is a belief that all people are equal and everyone should be treated the same. The aid system has developed since World War Ⅱ, however, poverty was not regarded as a serious problem at that time. Since the 1990s, the issue of poverty has been presented on the agenda of the Norwegian government. At that time, the policy was solely focused on a few disadvantage groups and an “employment line” was set up.The arrangements for the government to reduce poverty is mainly via tax cut, which is the basis of the system. The Norwegian government has built up this work life system to prevent income poverty, which is still the core policy to against the poverty now(Fl0tten et al. 2006). High employment rate in the labour market is essential for paid work. Then free public education and low-charge but high-quality daily care are provided to the public.After the Red-Green coalition took office, whole picture has changed. From 2005, this issue is no longer only regarded as an economic but also a structural problem. Thus, further measures are not only aiming at solving poverty but also adjust to improve social gradient. There is a rapid development after this problem has been attached to more importance.

The overall aims of aid policy can be outlined:

1. how to encourage employment rate and facilitate the welfare development
2. how to further develop the Nordic welfare model;
3. The perspective of prevention
4. Aims to alleviate poverty

Along with the aim, three goals have been come up with:

1. Everyone should get a paid job. There is a report called in 2006 'Work welfare, and inclusion' (Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion 2006), which indicates to decrease unemployment for persons who are in trouble in the ordinary labor market. There are also programs to improve basic skills for adults and help them to find jobs.
2. All children and young people have access to further education.Education has always been playing an important role in reducing poverty rate. In Norway, education system is based on a 10-year compulsory study and every student owns a right to enter upper secondary education. Higher education is free in the sense that there is no charge for school tuition fees, which can be seen as a huge improvements compared to other developed countries.
3. Improve life conditions people who are in a disadvantaged situation.Children and young people who are classified as target groups are viewed as disadvantaged people. Some measurements have been applied to improve the living condition of this group.

Health of poor children in Norway

According to National Health Interview Survey (1988), poor children were only 67% chance to be in good health condition, and they are reported to twice likely to be poor health condition than non poor children.

Child poverty plays an essential role in the extent of child obesity. A statistic conducted by S. A. Phipps, P. S. Burton, L. S. Osberg, and L. N. Lethbridge indicates that poverty and obesity risk is highly associated. This method uses representative figure reports children's weight and height in mid-1990 and calculates prevalence severity of obesity of child poverty for children aged 6 to 11 years old. According to the Norwegian Health Survey (Norway), the proportional severity of poverty in Norway in 1995 is 0.196 and the extent of obesity prevalence for children age 6-11 is 0.063.

Further reading

• Sandbæk, Mona (March 2013). "Child Poverty in a Rich Welfare State". Child Indicators Research. 6 (1): 53–69. doi:10.1007/s12187-012-9157-3. ISSN 1874-897X.

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