More than 400 million children live on less than 3 dollars a day

According to recent statistics from organizations such as UNICEF and the World Bank, one in five children in the world lives in poverty and exclusion. In Argentina, more than 45% of children are poor.

Among the various indicators of global inequality, child hunger stands out as one of the most sensitive issues to address. Despite the progress international organizations have reported on this problem over the last decade, the figures are once again setting off alarms. According to this year's data, more than 400 million children around the world live at risk of poverty and exclusion. 

According to reports by UNICEF and the World Bank, in 2025 some 417 million children under the age of 17 live on less than 3 dollars a day. The figure comes from the report "Children in monetary poor households," released in August of this year and prepared by those organizations, which recorded the levels of impact on the world's child population. 

Although in 2014 this same estimate was higher (approximately 507 children in this situation), specialists warned that the decline observed over the decade was slower than in other historical periods. Added to this is the fact that children account for 50% of the world's population living in extreme poverty and exclusion.

Of the total population recorded in the aforementioned report for the last year, three quarters is concentrated on the African continent, in the region south of the Sahara Desert. This amounts to 312 million children living in extreme poverty in that part of the planet alone.

Meanwhile, in the decade from 2014 to 2024, child poverty actually increased in regions such as the Middle East and North Africa, where exclusion levels among children are estimated to have risen from 7.2% to more than 13% over that period. On this issue, the director of the World Bank's Global Poverty Department, Luis Felipe López-Calva, expressed concern, warning that child poverty has worsened in "places where it is increasingly difficult to eradicate." 

Added to this is the impact of armed conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, which in 2022 had a major impact on child poverty. According to a UNICEF assessment from that same year, the war pushed an additional 4 million children into extreme poverty, a 21% increase over the previous year. 

While human rights organizations warn about the issue, child hunger also has repercussions on the international political agenda. The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, launched by Brazil in 2024 within the framework of the G20 summit, works to promote public policies to combat exclusion. On September 15, it held a roundtable of nations together with foundations, the United Nations and international banks, with the aim of advancing action plans in certain regions in emergency. In line with this, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil (the country that launched the Alliance), delivered a strong speech against hunger in his address at the opening of the UN General Assembly last September. There, the Brazilian president said that hunger "must be a central issue" on the international agenda. 

Poverty and childhood in Argentina

As at the global level, the focus on child poverty also turns inward in Argentina. According to figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses for the first half of 2025, more than 45% of children under 14 in the country live in households below the poverty line. Although the figure represents a decrease compared to the previous year, it has not fallen below the pre-pandemic floor, when it stood at 39.7% in 2017.

In the case of child poverty in Argentina this year, the most critically affected group was children aged 12 to 17, a segment that accounts for 40% of all poor children in the country. In second place, with almost 39%, comes the 6-to-11 age group. Finally, 21% are children up to 5 years old.

Upon the presentation of these data, UNICEF's representative in Argentina, Rafael Ramírez Mesec, emphasized that cash transfers to the population, through public programs such as the Universal Child Allowance (Asignación Universal por Hijo), play a fundamental role in containing poverty in the country. Mesec explained that without these funds, child extreme poverty could have been up to 10 points higher in the survey.

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia