46,000 families receive children’s allowances in 2013

The National Statistics Office today said that in 2013 a total of 45,955 families received children’s allowances while 3,649 families received maternity benefits.

According to the latest Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey (SILC), 22.6 per cent of households comprised single person households and 12.4 per cent consisted of households with 2 adults and 2 dependent children.

Persons found to be mostly at-risk-of-poverty in 2012 were those living in single parent households, with 47.6 per cent of persons in this category being at risk. The at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate for the same household category stood at 66.3 per cent.

A total of 45,955 families were receiving Children Allowances in 2013, while 947 families benefitted from the Disabled Child Allowance. The number of families receiving Maternity Benefits stood at 3,649.

There were 4,078 registered live births last year: 2,136 boys and 1,942 girls. The majority of babies were born to mothers aged between 30 and 34, while one-fourth were born outside marriage.

In 2012, a total of 9,196 children were attending pre-school education, with an average of 26 hours per week. Furthermore, 12,403 children spent an average 6 hours at day care centres during the same year, while 12,056 children spent an average of 17 hours per week being cared for by grandparents or other relatives and friends.

The employment rate in 2013 stood at 60.4 per cent for single persons and 62.0 per cent for persons who were married. The latter rate varied greatly when disaggregated by sex, differing from 82.7 per cent among married men to 42.4 per cent for married women.

Over 80 per cent of households had access to a computer in 2013, with the highest Further information on data: prevalence being in households comprising two adults with children. The same trend was also observed with regard to the percentage of households with internet access at home.

In addition, while 96.4 per cent of internet users were aged between 16 and 24, the percentage decreased steadily with age, to 22.8 per cent for persons aged 65-74.