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Child Poverty in a Rich Welfare State

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Abstract

Norway is a rich welfare state with universal welfare services and statutory rights to benefits in the event of illness and unemployment. Recent decades have seen strong wage growth and low unemployment. In the same period the question of how those in poverty should be defined, and by what criteria, has acquired renewed political relevance. This article sheds light on poverty in a welfare state with high employment and economic growth. Drawing on data from two samples of Norwegian families with children, it examines the trend in incomes and living conditions over time: a ‘low-income sample’ below 60 % of median income, and a ‘control sample’ drawn from the entire income spectrum. The families’ income development is observed from 2000 to 2007, whereas living conditions variables such as consumption, housing and subjective poverty are observed up to 2009. Research questions examine what share of the families remain below the chosen poverty line of 60 % of median income 8 years after their selection, what share has risen above the poverty line and how far it has risen. This is followed by an analysis of the families’ material living conditions and subjective experience of poverty, and the degree to which they experience deficiencies in all three areas. By way of conclusion the results are used to question the standard assumption that poverty is a dichotomous condition and hence that the poor are clearly distinguished from the non-poor.

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Notes

  1. The material is taken from “Children’s level of living”, a joint project by the Norwegian Women’s Public Health Association and NOVA. Statistics Norway was responsible for drawing samples and collecting data. See Sandbæk (ed.) 2004, 2008; Sandbæk and Pedersen (eds.) 2010 for a discussion of results from the three rounds of interviews.

  2. Statistics Norway has replaced the terms western and non-western immigrants with the names of the parts of the world they come from. We retain the terms, but apply Statistics Norway’s classification. Western immigrants include EU/EEA, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, while non-western includes Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania apart form Australia and New Zealand and Europe apart from the EU/EEA.

  3. The study “Children’s level of living” also contains various measures of social exclusion and psychological stress which have been analysed in a previous article in Tidskrift for Velferdsforskning; see Grødem 2008a.

  4. About 10 % of the families in the low income sample were recorded with annual incomes above the 60 % of the median threshold already in 2000. This is assumed to relate to the fact that the sample was drawn from the family statistics in 2000, whereas incomes are calculated based on information on household composition given in interviews in 2003. The group of respondents on a stable low income below the poverty line includes those who were above the poverty line in the first, but below in the last, three-year period. These are designated as families subject to downward social mobility. 1 Euro = 7.80 Norwegian kroner (27. June 2012).

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Acknowledgments

Thanks go to Axel West Pedersen for good comments and assistance with analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departement of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo and Akershus University College, PB 4 St.Olavs plass, 0130, Oslo, Norway

    Mona Sandbæk

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  1. Mona Sandbæk
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Correspondence to Mona Sandbæk.

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Sandbæk, M. Child Poverty in a Rich Welfare State. Child Ind Res 6, 53–69 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-012-9157-3

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