420,000 children live in poverty in Belgium

Some 420,000 children in Belgium are growing up in a poor family, with most of them living in Wallonia and Brussels.

At a colloquium of the King Baudouin Foundation in Bozar on Thursday, speakers stated that 18.7% of children in Belgium are growing up in households with incomes below the European poverty line.

Flanders fares better: the region came second in European rankings after the leader Denmark which only has 10% of its children living below the poverty line. Wallonia, with 25% child poverty, is well above the European average figure.

Brussels scored the worst, faring worse than trailing countries Bulgaria and Romania: 4 in 10 children grow up in a poor family in the capital.