Recent data from Eurostat links risk of poverty of current adults to the financial situation of the household they grew up in, as the percentage of those being at risk of poverty today and coming from poor backgrounds was found to be almost double than for those coming from a more financially secure background. This trend has been observed across the EU, including Cyprus where the difference in scale is more than double.

In 2023, 20.0% of adults aged 25 to 59 in the EU, who reported having a bad financial situation in their household around the age of 14, were at risk of poverty, compared with 12.4% of those who described their household’s financial situation at that age as good.

In Cyprus, 20.6% of adults who said they came from a household struggling financially were themselves at the risk of poverty, compared to a mere 9.7% out of those raised in a financially more stable household.

According to Eurostat, this data shows that socio-economic and financial situation during the teenage years might affect the standard of living in adulthood.

At the national level, Bulgaria reported the largest disparities in the risk of poverty considering the childhood financial situation of the household: 48.1% of those who reported bad financial situation in their household around age 14 were at risk of poverty, compared with14.4% of those who reported a good financial situation.

Romania showed similar figures, with 42.1% and 14.6%, respectively. Italy followed with 34.0% compared with 14.4%.

In contrast, Denmark was the only country where adults who lived in financially disadvantaged households did not face a higher risk of poverty later on: 8.5% for those from households with bad financial situation against 8.9% for those with good financial situation.

The differences between the two groups were also small in Slovenia (10.9% and 10.4%) and Finland (10.1% and 9.2%).