Income and living conditions in Europe In the EU27, 116 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2008

STAT/10/190

13 December 2010

Income and living conditions in Europe
In the EU27, 116 million people were at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2008

How many people are poor in the EU? Is inequality increasing? Does a job guarantee escape from poverty? Questions like these and many others on poverty and social exclusion as well as housing, health and education are analysed in the new publication Income and living conditions in Europe1 issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. This publication is based on data from the EU-SILC survey2, and is issued in connection with the closing conference of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion3, which takes place in Brussels on 16 and 17 December 2010.

As President Barroso says in the foreword to the publication: "One of the headline targets in the Europe 2020 Strategy for Jobs and Growth4 is promoting social inclusion, in particular through the reduction of poverty, by aiming to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty and excluded from full participation in work and society. This publication is an integral part of this political agenda". To illustrate the content of the publication, this News Release focuses on some aspects of the statistical measurement of poverty and social exclusion.

A key target of the Europe 2020 strategy is to lift at least 20 million people in the EU27 out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion. Progress towards this target is measured by using a combination of three indicators: persons at-risk-of poverty, severely materially deprived persons and persons living in households with very low work intensity5. In 2008, 116 million people in the EU27 were affected by at least one of these forms of social exclusion.

81 million people in the EU27 at risk of poverty

As regards income poverty, 81 million persons (or 17% of the population) in the EU27 in 2008 were at risk of poverty after social transfers, meaning that their disposable income was below their national at-risk-of-poverty threshold5. Latvia (26%), Romania (23%) and Bulgaria (21%) had the highest at risk-of-poverty rates, and the Czech Republic (9%), the Netherlands and Slovakia (both 11%) the lowest.

42 million people in the EU27 severely materially deprived

In the EU27, 42 million (or 8% of the population) were severely materially deprived, meaning that they had living conditions constrained by a lack of resources such as not being able to afford to pay their bills, keep their home adequately warm, own a car or a telephone etc5. The shares of those materially deprived varied significantly among Member States, with the highest in Bulgaria (41%) and Romania (33%), and the lowest in Luxembourg, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain (all less than 3%).

34 million people in the EU27 lived in households with low work intensity

Regarding the indicator on low work intensity, 34 million (or 9% of the population aged 0-59) in the EU27 lived in households where the adults worked less than 20% of their total work potential during the past year5. Ireland (14%), Hungary, Belgium and Germany (all 12%) had the largest proportions of those living in low work intensity households, and Cyprus (4%), Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia and Sweden (all 5%) the lowest.

7 million people in the EU27 fell under all three criteria

There were 116 million people in the EU27 in 2008, or almost a quarter of the EU27 population, who were touched by at least one of these three forms of social exclusion. Among the Member States, Bulgaria (45% of the population), Romania (44%), Latvia (34%) and Poland (31%) had the highest shares, and the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic (all 15%), Luxembourg and Denmark (both 16%) had the lowest.

There were, on the other hand, 7 million people (or 1.4% of the population) in the EU27 who fell under all three criteria in 2008. The highest proportions were observed in Bulgaria (4%) and Hungary (3%), and the lowest in Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands (all 0.5% or less).

• The publication Income and living conditions in Europe is available free of charge in pdf format on the Eurostat website http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat. The publication is the result of the Network for the analysis of EU-SILC (Net-SILC), which brought together official statisticians responsible for producing statistics and researchers who use these data.

Data presented in this News Release might differ from the data in the publication, due to updates made after the data extractions used for the publication. It is the case in particular for data related to the indicator on people living in households with low work intensity.

• The EU-SILC survey is the EU reference source for comparative statistics on income distribution, poverty and living conditions. More information can be found on the Eurostat website:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/income_social_inclusion_living_conditions/introduction.

The reference population is all private households and their current members residing in the territory of a given Member State at the time of data collection. Persons living in collective households and in institutions are generally excluded from the target population as well as small and remote parts of the national territory amounting to no more than 2% of the national population.

• For more information on the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=637.

• For more information on the Europe 2020 strategy: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/index_en.htm.

• Persons at risk of poverty are those living in a household with an equivalised disposable income below the risk-of-poverty threshold, which is set at 60% of the national median equivalised disposable income (after social transfers). The equivalised income is calculated by dividing the total household income by its size determined after applying the following weights: 1.0 to the first adult, 0.5 to each other household members aged 14 or over and 0.3 to each household member aged less than 14 years old.

Severely materially deprived persons have living conditions constrained by a lack of resources and experience at least 4 out of the 9 following deprivation items: cannot afford 1) to pay rent/mortgage or utility bills, 2) to keep home adequately warm, 3) to face unexpected expenses, 4) to eat meat, fish or a protein equivalent every second day, 5) a one week holiday away from home, 6) a car, 7) a washing machine, 8) a colour TV, or 9) a telephone.

People living in households with very low work intensity are those aged 0-59 who live in households where on average the adults (aged 18-59) worked less than 20% of their total work potential during the past year. Students are excluded.

Eurostat news releases on the internet: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Poverty and social exclusion, 2008

thousand persons

Poverty and social exclusion, 2008

% total population