Children in Absolute Poverty
The proportion of children in absolute poverty in North East LEP, and England excl. London is given in the first chart. North East LEP, has had higher proportional levels of absolute child poverty across 2015 to 2022. In 2015 in the North East LEP, area 18.3% of children were in poverty. This was 2.7pp higher than England excl. London. This gap increased to a maximum of 10.9pp in 2021 but dramatically reduced in 2022 to 4.6%. In 2022, 20.5% of children in North East LEP, lived in absolute poverty. This equates to c.69,000 children living in absolute poverty in North East LEP, in 2022. As was highlighted the relative poverty statistics given above, this could relate to impacts resulting from Covid.
Newcastle Upon Tyne had the highest levels of children in absolute poverty in 2022 at 24.1%; the lowest was North Tyneside at 16.4%. The North East LEP average was 20.5%, 4.6pp higher than England excl. London.
The proportion of children in absolute poverty remained stable across comparator LEP areas between 2015 to 2022. There was significant variation in 2021; Tees Valley and North East LEP, had substantial increases in absolute child poverty which then fell in 2022. Reverse trends occurred in D2N2 and West of England which had drops in absolute child poverty in 2021 and increases in 2022.