On Monday 16 October, ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the European Statistical Office, Eurostat published encouraging figures on the fight to eradicate poverty, with another consecutive fall since 2012 in the proportion of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU. This figure fell to 23.4%, which is now at a level lower than its 2008 figure.
17.2% of the EU population in 2016 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, which includes income poverty, 7.5% of the population were severely materially deprived and 10.4% of the population lived in low work intensity households, which fell to around 117 million. This is good news according to the Eurostat analysis, which points out that the figure increased to 25% in 2012. On the other hand, the gross figure remains higher than in 2008 when the number of people at risk of falling into poverty and social exclusion stood at around 115 million.
In 2016, the countries with the highest percentage at risk of poverty or social exclusion were Bulgaria (40.4%), Romania (38.8% but this is relative to the figure of 44.2% in 2008)) and Greece (35.6%). For the latter, there is a strong increase in poverty compared to 2008 when the number of people at risk of poverty stood at 28.1%.
Countries where poverty levels remain under control include the Netherlands (16.8% in 2016 as opposed to 14.9% in 2008), the Czech Republic (13.3% in 2016, as opposed to 15.3% in 2008) and Finland (16.6% in 2016, compared to 17.4% in 2008). Slovenia and Slovakia also have encouraging rates with 18.4% and 18.1% respectively.
The analysis goes even further. Eurostat notes that about 1 in 6 persons in the EU is at risk of income poverty (17.2% in 2016, this level is higher than in 2008, when it stood at 16.5%). These states include: Bulgaria (22.9%), Spain (22.3%) ang Lithuania (21.9%). In contrast, the lowest rates were observed in the Czech Republic (9.7%), Finland (11.6%) and Denmark (11.9%). 1 in 13 people were severely materially deprived in Europe, with the worst levels being in Bulgaria (31.9%), Romania (23.8%) and Greece (22.4%). Sweden (0.8%), Luxembourg (1.6%) and Finland (2.2%) being the best off.
With low work intensity households, this figure stands at an average of 1 in 6. Ireland (19.2% in 2015), Greece (17.2%), Spain (14.9%) and Belgium (14.6%) suffering the most from this phenomenon. On the contrary, Estonia (5.8%), Poland (6.4%) and Slovakia (6.5%) have the lowest rates. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)