The war in Ukraine and rising inflation have driven an additional four million children across eastern Europe and Central Asia into poverty, a 19 per cent increase since 2021, according to a new UNICEF study published today.
The impact of the war in Ukraine and subsequent economic downturn on child poverty in eastern Europe and Central Asia – which features data from 22 countries* across the region - shows that children are bearing the heaviest burden of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. While children make up 25 per cent of the population, they account for nearly 40 per cent of the additional 10.4 million people experiencing poverty this year.