Archive · 14 Aug 2026
Costa Rica Tops Child Poverty Ranking; US Fourth Highest
Some countries have lots of children growing up poor, while others have very few.
A group called the OECD looked at how many children live in poor families across many countries.
It found that Costa Rica had the highest child poverty rate, at 29.6%.
That means nearly three out of every ten children in Costa Rica were growing up poor.
Israel had the second-highest rate, followed by Spain and the United States.
In the US, about one in five children lived in poor households in 2023.
Finland had the lowest rate, at just 4.6%.
The numbers are measured against each country's own average income, so they don't compare rich and poor directly across countries.
High living costs and lots of informal jobs can make families with children more likely to be poor.
The data shows that even wealthy countries can have many children living in poverty.
Costa Rica had the highest child poverty rate at 29.6%, followed by Israel at 23.2%.
The United States ranked fourth with a 21.1% child poverty rate, meaning roughly one in five US children lived below half the national median income in 2023.
Finland had the lowest child poverty rate at 4.6%, followed by Slovenia (6.2%), Ireland (6.8%) and Norway (6.9%).
In Israel, child poverty is highly concentrated among Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jews and Israeli Arabs, with both groups facing rates of nearly 50%.
The OECD measure is based on each country's median income and does not directly compare actual living standards across countries.
- Who
- Children in OECD member countries and in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, which are in the OECD accession process.
- What
- A comparison of child poverty rates, with Costa Rica highest at 29.6% and Finland lowest at 4.6%.
- When
- 2023, the latest data available as of August 2026.
- Where
- OECD member countries including Costa Rica, Israel, Spain, the United States and Finland.
- Why
- To show how children fare within their own country's income distribution; high living costs and large informal labour markets can leave households with children vulnerable to poverty.
- Highest child poverty rate
- Costa Rica, 29.6%
- Second highest
- Israel, 23.2%
- US child poverty rate
- 21.1% (about one in five US children)
- Lowest child poverty rate
- Finland, 4.6%
- Data source
- OECD Income Distribution Database
- Data year
- 2023
- Countries with rates above 20%
- 4
- Countries with rates below 9%
- 10