Street children are children who spend most of their time on the street which has become their regular habitat and/or the source of making their living, and who get inadequate protection, surveillance and guidance from the adults, who are in charge of them.

 To specify the concept of street child it is important to know that this term is still in the stage of development - and not only in Latvia but also in many other countries. There are various approaches characterizing the children who spend most of their time on the street or live there on a permanent basis:

1. UNICEF groups the potential and existing street children in three general categories:
   • children at high risk that may become street children (those are children who work on the street but live in a family), or live in a family in a great poverty;
   • children in the street who receive insufficient support from their family (they mostly come from families of alcoholics, drug addicts, lonely mothers or families with many children);
   • children of the street - they function absolutely without the family support.

      2. Definition by the NGO International association for Street Children : street children are children under 18 who live extensive periods of time in the street environment. These are children who migrate from one place of habitation to another and have their own peer groups and other contacts in the street. These children may have an official address - residence of their parents or the location of their orphanage. Nevertheless, in most cases these children have very weak bonds with the grownups - parents, the school, childcare institutions or social services that should in principle take care of them.

• World Bank review "Street children in 10 countries of the Central and Eastern Europe" (1999) concludes that the references to street children usually imply both children groups - those who live on the street, and those ones who spend most of their time on the street. It is stressed that it is a complex process through which the children adapt to the street life and most of them keep in touch with their families.

Street children are characterized by several features:

• their permanent residence and work ( earning money for food, clothes, also alcohol, drugs and slot machines, begging) is on the street;
• they form their social group, which serves the means of surviving;
• they often do not attend school or do it irregularly, they have no close bonds with grownups (including the school, municipality institutions);
• they spend most of their time in the street environment; mostly have very weak ties to their families, their parents who are not concerned with the lifestyle of their children.
   

Statistics
There is no statistics on the number of street children in Latvia.
There are several reasons why it is difficult to do it:

• firstly , the definition of street children is rather descriptive and does not include any specific, measurable criteria according to which a child could be included in the street children group;
• secondly, there is no clear consensus among the specialists terminology - who are street children in Latvia?
• thirdly, street children are a very mobile group that lives their alternative street life - they often change their place of habitation, as well as the lifestyle - some period of time they live on the street, some - with their family, some - in the childcare institution and then return on the street again.