Poverty: Facts and trends

The most recent data available (2005) shows that 16% of the EU population, that is about 78 million people, are at risk of poverty. 

- The picture of poverty across the EU
- Is poverty decreasing?
- Some key issues and problems

The picture of poverty across the EU

The most recent data available (2005) show that 16% of the EU population, that is about 78 million people, are at-risk-of poverty . However there is a wide difference between Member States: for instance, between 9% and12% of the population are at risk in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia and Finland whereas 20% or over are at risk in Lithuania, Poland, Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal.

AT RISK OF POVERTY RATES (Source: SILC (2005)

Children (0-17) have a particularly high rate of poverty at 19%. One parent households and those with dependent children have the highest poverty risk. For single parents with one dependent child the risk is 33%. Other age groups with high risk are young people (18-24) at 18% and older people (65+) at 19% with older women at much higher risk than men (21% compared to 16%).

Of course, these figures do not include some of those in the most extreme situations such as some minority ethnic groups, especially the Roma, immigrants, undocumented migrants, the homeless, people living in or leaving institutions, etc.

In most but not all Member States where poverty affects a large share of the population, it also tends to be more severe. The depth or severity of poverty (i.e. how far below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold the income of people at risk of poverty is) for the EU as a whole (2005) is 23% but this ranges from as low as 14% in Finland to as high as 30% in Poland.

Unemployment is a key factor in people being at risk of poverty. 40% of people who are unemployed are at risk of poverty compared to 8% of those at work, 17% of retired people and 23% not at work.

On the other hand, if one considers the overall breakdown of people over 18 who are at-risk-of-poverty more of them are either at work (28%), retired (27%) or otherwise inactive (29%) than actually unemployed (15%). The at-risk-of poverty rate for those in work in the EU is 8%. Thus, while a job is a key route out of poverty not all jobs pay enough to actually lift someone out of poverty.

AT-RISK-OF-POVERTY RATE BY LABOUR FORCE STATUS - Individuals aged 18 and over - 2004

Is poverty decreasing?

Given the commitment by the EU to eradicate poverty by 2010, most people want to know if poverty has been decreasing. However, it is not possible with current data to be very specific about recent trends over time in poverty.

The most recent EU comparable data (2005) is based on a new data source, EU SILC, which, for technical reasons, is not directly comparable with previous surveys.

However the current overall figure for the percentage of people-at-risk-of-poverty (16%) is not very different for that for the older Member States over the previous decade (17% -1995; 16% - 1997; 15% - 1999; 15% 2001) or for the EU as a whole (15% - 2002). Thus it is reasonable to assume that over the EU as a whole the level of poverty has remained fairly constant, though there may have been significant changes within some countries, particularly in the composition of poverty, i.e. which groups are poor.