Over 400,000 Dutch kids at risk of poverty

About 421 thousand children lived in a home with a low income in 2014 and were at risk of growing up in poverty. That is 12 percent of all children in the Netherlands. Some 131 thousand of them have been living in a low-income household for more than 4 years, according to Statistics Netherlands. Children growing up in low-income households have less opportunity to participate in activities than their peers. For example, they can't always go on school trips, have to play fewer sports and take fewer music lessons because their parents can not afford it. Two years ago 66 percent of kids in low income families could not go on an annual holiday, compared to 15 percent of their peers. More than half could not buy new clothes on a regular basis. 32 percent could not participate in sport or take a music lessons, compared to 8 percent of their peers. And 12 percent could not celebrate their birthday, compared to 2 percent of kids in households with an average income or higher. One in eight of all kids in the Netherlands are at risk of poverty. In Zuid-Holland the risk is largest with 1 in 7 children. The city of Rotterdam having the highest poverty risk. In Rotterdam 1 in 4 kids are growing up in a family with a low income. The province of Utrecht has the lowest risk of poverty with 1 in 10 children growing up in a low-income household.