One in four Romanians at risk of income poverty, highest rate in EU

Romania still posts the second-highest rate of population at risk of poverty or social exclusion among the European Union countries, despite significant improvement in the last ten years, according to Eurostat data.

The population at risk of poverty and social exclusion represented under a third (32.5%) of the total population in 2018, down 11.6 percentage points compared to ten years ago. Only Bulgaria had a higher rate (32.8%).

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest rates were recorded in Czechia (12.2%), Slovenia (16.2%), Slovakia (16.3%, 2017 data), Finland (16.5%), the Netherlands (16.7%), Denmark and France (both 17.4%) and Austria (17.5%).

The rate in Romania is more than 10pp above EU’s 21.7% average. Furthermore, when it comes to the population at risk of income poverty, Romania ranks as the weakest among all EU countries with a rate of 23.5%.

Nearly 1 in 4 Romanians are thus at risk of income poverty. 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).

(Photo: Pixabay)