Poverty incidence and social exclusion among people under the age of 18 in Poland significantly decreased (by almost 10 percentage points between 2015 and 2023). The improvement in the situation of children in Poland was so substantial that in 2017-2021, the level of poverty and exclusion among the youngest was lower than in the total population. This phenomenon showed a different pattern in the EU on average, where over the same period, the financial and existential situation of those under 18 improved the least and did not approach the level of the total population. For those entering adulthood (i.e. ‘young adults’), the level of poverty and social exclusion also decreased, but to a lesser degree than among children. As a result, it is the ‘young adults’ who are now mostly affected by this phenomenon in Poland (as in the EU).

Among the factors contributing to the improvement of children's living conditions in Poland was the introduction of a government programme called ‘Family 500 plus’ in 2016 (‘Family 800 plus’, starting from 2024). This benefit is meant to support families in partially covering the expenses related to raising children. The largest decrease in child poverty in Poland was recorded in the first years following the implementation of this programme. In the subsequent years, however, the rate in which poverty decreased was much slower, while in 2021-2023, poverty and social exclusion incidence among Polish children began to increase. A decline in the living standard of the youngest is also observed in the whole EU. The reasons behind this situation include the deterioration of the financial condition of households during the pandemic and high inflation.

One of the factors contributing to the risk of poverty and social exclusion is deep financial and social deprivation, which means that due to financial difficulties one cannot satisfy his or her needs regarded as desirable, or even those believed necessary for decent living. In Poland, the percentage of children in such a difficult situation fell from 9% to 3% in the years 2015–2023, and the share of young adults (aged 18-24) in the same situation shrank from 6% to 1%. In 2023, Poland was ranked as 7th EU country with the lowest value of the indicator of deep financial and social deprivation among children (below the age of 18), and 4th EU country in the same rating relating to young adults. These are results better than the EU average. Considering particular types of needs, children and young adults’ (aged 16–24) situation improved to the largest extant in areas such as: regular participation in different forms of leisure, spending a small amount of money on one’s needs once a week and eating out or going for a drink with family members or friends at least once a month.

Since 2010, the living conditions of children significantly improved. The percentage of children inhabiting buildings with problems such as wall dampness, mould or leaking roof decreased from 17% 2010 to 7% in 2023. The share of children living in houses not sufficiently lit fell in the same period from 8% to 3%. The above-mentioned issues are the problem for fewer children in Poland than in the EU. What is still challenging in Poland, though, is the relatively high indicator of the overpopulation in apartments. Among people aged below 18, this indicator reached 44% in 2023, which was 5th highest result in the EU. In other words, almost half of children in Poland live in apartments which do not guarantee the minimal space per person¹. Still, the problem of overcrowded apartments in which Polish children live improved considerably compared to 2010, when 61% of children in Poland lived in overcrowded flats.

Extreme poverty is the most severe form of poverty. In Poland, it is determined on the basis of the subsistence minimum¹, which defines the most basic needs which have to be satisfied to avoid a biological threat to human life, health and psychophysical development. Therefore, the range of the subsistence minimum covers only those needs which enable a person to survive and whose satisfaction cannot be postponed (food, shelter, medicines and personal hygiene, clothing, children's basic education). The subsistence minimum does not include participation in culture, sports or recreation, nor the use of transport and communication. This is what distinguishes it from multidimensional forms of poverty, associated not only with the lack of access to basic goods and services (income poverty), but also with the inability to participate in socioeconomic, political and cultural life (social exclusion).

In 2015-2023, the percentage of people living below the subsistence minimum significantly fluctuated; this also included the youngest people and families with dependent children. The periodic decreases and increases in the extent of this phenomenon were primarily influenced by the financial situation of households (and the external crises that condition it), but also by changes in the extreme poverty thresholds (determined by the Institute of Labour and Social Studies on the basis of average annual price indices announced by Statistics Poland).

1) Subsistence minimum, also referred to as biological minimum, estimated by the Institute of Labour and Social Studies (Pol. Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych – IPiSS).

* Data for 2021-2023 have been generalized based on the results of the 2021 National Census of Population and Housing, additionally taking into account the population structure by age and gender, therefore they are not directly comparable with similar data for previous years.
** The group of married couples also includes informal unions.
*** A dependent child is a person aged 0-14 (inclusive), who is part of a household or a person aged 15-25, unless they have their own source of income or are not married (or in an informal union).

The incidence of extreme poverty in Poland is now lower than in 2015, both among the youngest (0- to 17-year-olds) and in all types of households with dependent children. Married couples (or those remaining in informal relationships) with one child are an exception, as their situation has not changed significantly. The improvement is particularly evident in the case of households that face the highest risk of poverty, i.e. multi-child families and single parents (in the case of whom the incidence of extreme poverty was reduced almost twofold or more than twofold, respectively, compared to 2015). Moreover, the occurrence of the phenomenon among single parents fell below the level for the population in total, and for families with at least three children, it almost equalled the level of extreme poverty in the total population (in 2023). Regardless of the typology of households and considering age only, the incidence of extreme poverty decreased compared to 2015 only among the youngest people (aged 0-17). Nevertheless, extreme poverty still affects children more often than adults, and its extent is greater among the youngest than in the total population.

* Data for 2021-2023 have been generalized based on the results of the 2021 National Census of Population and Housing, additionally taking into account the population structure by age and gender, therefore they are not directly comparable with similar data for previous years.

Children’s living conditions are affected, among other factors, by the level of education of their parents. Usually, the higher the level of education of the parents, the lower the incidence of poverty and social exclusion¹ among the children. Compared to 2015, the largest improvement in the living standard was recorded among those children most vulnerable to poverty whose parents were poorly educated; moreover, this positive change was more notable in Poland than in the EU. The extent of poverty and exclusion among children of the poorest-educated parents was limited in Poland so effectively (from 69% in 2015 to 30% in 2023) that it almost equalled the level of these phenomena among children whose parents had secondary education. In addition to the ‘Family 500 plus’ programme, the considerable improvement of the living standard in households with members having the lowest level of education could be the result of the increase in the minimal wage combined with the steady fall in the number of the poorest-educated people.

1) The percentage of people at risk of poverty or deep material deprivation or those living in households with a very low level of labour intensity.

The closer the members of a household to being employed full time, the lower the risk of poverty among children. Poland belongs to a group of EU countries where very low labour intensity² is not a challenge; in 2023, it was an issue for 3% of households with children. In households without children, on the other hand, very low labour intensity was recorded twice as often. The number of children in households where adults work below their potential (i.e. use less than 20% of their full labour potential) fell in Poland by almost 40% compared to 2015 (by over 10% on average in the EU). As a result, the share of children in families with very low labour intensity and at the same time vulnerable to poverty and exclusion decreased significantly in Poland – from 76% in 2015 to 49% in 2023 (despite a sharp reversal of this trend in 2020–2021). In the EU, the extent of this phenomenon was limited to a much lower degree, i.e. from 76% to 70% (without the fluctuations during the pandemic), respectively.

2) The percentage of people aged 0-59 living in households with very low labour intensity, i.e. those whose adults (aged 18-59) worked less than 20% of their total labour potential in the previous year.

The nature of the relationship between the composition of a household and the living conditions of the youngest did not change significantly in the last few years. Children cared for by a single parent and children from multi-child families (i.e. those raising three or more children) are still at more risk of poverty and exclusion than children with both parents and with a smaller number or no siblings (both in Poland and in the EU). The situation of children cared for by single parents and those raised in multi-child families nevertheless improved significantly in Poland in 2015–2023 (as it did in the EU, but to a smaller extent in Poland).