One in two children in Romania is abused, and 41.5% of children are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the highest rate in the European Union, while 45% of girls under 15 become mothers in EU countries come from Romania, according to data released by the organization Save the Children on Wednesday, June 1, marking Children’s Day.
Main findings
- 4 out of 10 Romanian children are affected by social and educational isolation and lack of decent living conditions;
- Violence affects 1 in 2 Romanian children, and child sexual abuse is the most underreported negative social phenomenon;
- 45% of girls under 15 who have become mothers in EU countries come from Romania;
- 76,170 children have parents who have gone abroad to work, of which 21,024 are completely deprived of parental care;
- In 2021, one in three children experienced anxiety and needed counseling and psycho-emotional support.
In Romania, one in two children is subjected to a form of physical, emotional and sexual violence, while 41.5% of children live at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 6 children out of a thousand die before the age of one 731 girls under the age of 15 become mothers each year (2020 data), and at least 100,000 children live without both parents or without one of them. Moreover, in 2021, one in three children experienced anxiety and needed counseling and psychological support, the percentage increasing to over 50% in the case of adolescents, leading to extremely serious consequences, namely suicide attempts. In only 8.1% of cases, the diagnoses were independent of the pandemic context (ADHD / ADD- attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, speech disorders, or other neurodevelopmental disorders), according to the data of a survey conducted by Save the Children Romania.
Romanian children, the most exposed to poverty and social exclusion in the EU
Romania continues to be the Member State of the European Union with the highest level of risk of poverty or social exclusion among children – 41.5% of them, ie 1.5 million children being affected by the lack of family income to ensure survival or a decent living, social and educational isolation in which they live, lack of access to age-appropriate nutrition and quality socio-educational and health services.
Romania remains a country of unequal opportunities, given that this risk of poverty ranges from 19.9% in large cities to 30% in small towns and suburbs and reaches a worrying level of 50.5% in rural areas.
EU comparative data show that, at the level of the general population in our country, the percentage of households that cannot afford a meal of meat / fish or other equivalent type of protein at least every two days reached 14.7% (the EU average being of 8.1%).
Moreover, the percentage increases to 28.3% for families with three or more children and to 30% for single-parent families. The same source shows us that 26.2% of Romanian children grow up in homes that do not have toilets inside the house, the EU average being only 2%.