A further two authorities, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire, have levels of 25% each. Poverty levels are high in rural communities too with nearly one in five children in the Western Isles and Argyll and Bute affected. Even in the local authority with the lowest level of child poverty, Shetland, the figure is one in 10 children.

This is the first time local child poverty has been mapped after taking housing costs into account. These new figures look at the extent of child poverty based on disposable income after meeting housing costs – an essential family expenditure – which shows the real, hidden extent of the number of families struggling to make ends meet.

In Scotland 220,000 children are living in poverty, one in five of the child population, and this could soon rise.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty is calling on the UK government to rethink tax and benefit policies that are set to drive up to 100,000 more children in Scotland into poverty.¹ The child poverty campaigners are also urging Scottish and local government to ratchet-up delivery of the Child Poverty Strategy.

With the new statistics also highlighting the extent to which housing costs push families into poverty, they are calling for local and national housing policy to focus on keeping rents down in both the private and social sector.

Neil Mathers, a spokesperson for the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said: “These figures reveal just how widely and deeply child poverty reaches into our communities. It’s important we look behind these figures at what is driving this level of poverty in our country.   Read More Here