Table 1 Poverty in childhood and adulthood by country

From: Intergenerational persistence of poverty in five high-income countries

Country

Association between childhood poverty and adult povertya

Child poverty rateb (%)

Young adult poverty rate (%)

Adult poverty rate if no childhood poverty (%)

United States

0.43

18.6

17.9

9.9

United Kingdom

0.16

15.6

11.6

9.1

Australia

0.21

10.3

9.2

7.0

Germanyc

0.15

4.7

9.8

9.1

Denmark

0.08

5.4

7.6

7.5

  1. aUnconditional, bivariate association by country.
  2. bMean rate of poverty from birth through to 17 years of age among individuals included in our sample.
  3. cThe Germany sample excludes individuals who spent all of their childhood in East Germany.
  4. Poverty is defined as having a post-tax and -transfer income below 50% of the national median equivalized household income. See Table 3 for sample details.
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