At the request of the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Nordic Welfare Centre has prepared this report examining the scope of, and recent developments in, poverty risk among families with children in the Nordic region. The need for a coordinated response has grown in the wake of the pandemic and the subsequent surge in energy and food prices. While the intensified cost-of-living pressures do not automatically translate into a higher risk of income poverty, rising prices do erode purchasing power and intensify financial strain, particularly in low-income families with children across the region. The Nordic region aims to be the world’s most sustainable and integrated region by 2030. The vision requires social sustainability, ensuring that all children and young people have real opportunities for a safe upbringing, education, participation, and well-being here and now.
Recent years have seen widening disparities, with more children – both in Nordic-born families and in families with immigrant or refugee backgrounds – growing up in households with persistently low income. This increases the risk of disadvantages in areas such as early childhood education and care, learning opportunities, health, leisure, and social participation. Not only do these disadvantages affect children’s well‑being and development today, but they can also accumulate over time if left unaddressed. The increased inequality in opportunity contradicts the Nordic commitment to equality and social sustainability and requires coordinated action to ensure that every child has a fair start in life.
This report provides a solid foundation of knowledge for collaborative Nordic initiatives. It combines analyses of risk and scale with examples of promising practices, comparative insights, and crucially, children's own experiences. Children are approached as members of shared social worlds whose well-being is shaped by family, community, and welfare institutions. The report emphasises the importance of safeguarding children’s everyday lives while strengthening the social and structural conditions that enable inclusion, learning, and participation across the life course, without reducing childhood to a transitional phase toward adulthood.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the researchers who contributed to this work for their dedicated collaboration and invaluable insights. We hope that this report will inspire cross-border and cross-sector cooperation and support the development of promising research-based approaches to strengthening social sustainability across the Nordic region.