UNICEF has released the report Measuring Child Poverty, Innocenti Report Card 10, 2012. It places Canada’s child poverty rate at 24 out of 35 “economically advanced” countries, behind countries such as Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom.

For additional information on the report, please visit UNICEF website.

Here are some excerpts from media articles on the release of the report.

Globe and Mail, Miles Corak article "What the UNICEF report on poverty doesn't tell us" points out, "that the distinction between "absolute" and "relative" poverty lines is a false one; there are only relative lines with disagreement on how rapidly they should be updated.  Further, the argument that poverty can't be eliminated when it is measured in relative terms is just plain wrong, reflecting at best a misunderstanding of basic statistics.”  More strategically he asks how has child poverty changed in each country since the last report in this series in 2005?  Canada's child poverty rate of 13.3 per cent is apparently a bit lower than the 14.9 per cent published by UNICEF five or so years ago but in contrast to the UK where a set of pro-active policies were put in place, that decrease is small."

Lauries Monsebraaten's Toronto Star article "Canada lags on fighting child poverty, report finds" includes, "Canada can do much more including increase the National Child Benefit to at least $5,000, allow families with children under 18 to keep more earnings while receiving the Working Income Tax Benefit and EI."