this means that children who are below the relative poverty line in france or germany may be significantly better off in actual living standards than children who are living at the median income level in poland or portugalv or to take another example a child living at the relative poverty line in the netherlands lias double the income of a child living at the median income level in a country like hungary figure an income of in country a where such services are free or heavily subsidized may imply a very different standard of living from the same income in country b where such items must be paid for at market rates but when using this yardstick to make comparisons between countries it is probably better to restrict the comparison to those generally wealthier countries where living on incomes below of median implies a similar level of risk of social exclusion figure for example restricts the comparison of relative child poverty rates to the oecd countries with annual per capita incomes of more than within individual economically advanced countries direct measures of child deprivation are sometimes available