Brussels, 13/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - This Monday 13 December, Eurostat presented a new publication on issues of poverty and social exclusion, health and education. The study, “Income and living conditions in Europe”, highlights the following results for 2008 in the EU of 27:
(1) Income poverty: 81 million people (or 17% of the population) were at risk of poverty after taking account of social transfers, meaning that their income was below the national at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The highest risk-of-poverty rates were seen in Latvia (26%), Romania (23%) and Bulgaria (21%), the lowest in the Czech Republic (9%), the Netherlands and Slovakia (11% each);
(2) Severe material deprivation: 42 million people (or 8% of the population) experience living conditions constrained by a lack of resources such as not being able to afford to pay their bills, heat their home properly, afford a car or telephone, etc. The percentage of people in a situation of severe material deprivation varies greatly between member states, the highest being in Bulgaria (41%) and Romania (33%) and the lowest in Luxembourg, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Spain (less than 3% each);
(3) Households with low work intensity: 34 million people (or 9% of the population aged from 0 to 59 years) lived in households where the adults used less than 20% of their total work potential. The highest proportions of people living in households with low work intensity were to be found in Ireland (14%), Hungary, Belgium and Germany (12% each) and the lowest in Cyprus (4%) and in Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia and Sweden (5% each);
(4) People affected by all three criteria: 116 million people (or nearly a quarter of the population of the EU27) were affected by at least one of these three forms of social exclusion. The highest proportions were seen in Bulgaria (45% of the population), Romania (44%), Latvia (34%) and Poland (31%), and the lowest in the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic (15% each), Luxembourg and Denmark (16% each). Seven million people in the EU27 (one quarter of the population) were affected by all three criteria at the same time: the highest proportions were registered in Bulgaria (4%) and in Hungary (3%) and the lowest in Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands (0.5% or less each). (Com-G.B./transl.fl)