17% of EU Citizens at Risk of Poverty

According to a recent survey issued by Eurostat and referring to 2008, 17 percent of European people were at risk of poverty.

The at-risk-of-poverty rate is a relative measure of poverty, and the poverty threshold varies greatly between Member States.

Individuals who earn less than 60 per cent of the Member State’s average are considered to be at risk of poverty: the country with the highest number of people at risk is Latvia, where 26 percent of population is considered at risk by this survey.

Romania and Bulgaria, where 23 and 21 percent of population have poverty’s problems, are the second and third worst countries.

In Estonia 19 percent of population is considered at risk, so its situation seems better than the one of other countries such as Lithuania, Greece and Spain, all of them at 20 percent.

The countries who seem to have less poverty problems are Czech Republic, 9 percent, Netherlands and Slovakia, both at 11 percent.

According to the survey, in Estonia, people aged 65 and more are more at risk than other people and their percentage is highly above the one of the total Estonian population.

The Baltic country has one of worst situation among all the European countries concerning aged 65 and above people.

Only Cyprus and Latvia are in a worst situation than Estonia. It’s better for Estonian children aged 0 to 17. In 2008, the at-risk-of-poverty rate for those aged up to 17 years was 20 percent in the EU27, and only 17 percent in Estonia.

The highest rates were recorded in Romania, 33 percent, Bulgaria, 26 percent, Italy and Latvia, both 25 percent, and the lowest in Denmark, 9 percent.