International day of eradication of poverty
In Slovenia one in 7 and in the EU-28 one in 6 people below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold
According to the latest data, in Slovenia 14.5% or 290,000 people and in the EU-28 16.6% or 83 million people lived below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The at-risk-of-poverty threshold was the lowest in Romania and the highest in Luxembourg.
In 1992 the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 17 October the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with the aim to promote awareness of the need to eradicate poverty in the world and to encourage activities to fight it.
Relative and absolute poverty
That poverty is a serious global problem can be seen from the World Bank estimate according to which more than a billion people in developing countries are living in extreme poverty. These people live in absolute poverty with less than USD 1.25 per day. Absolute poverty is lack of goods and services that are urgently required in life, such as food, drinking water, housing, basic medical care, basic education.
Statistical offices of European countries measure relative poverty. We suppose that due to their low income poor people cannot afford to have a life that is deemed normal for the society in which they live, and this leads to social exclusion. This is not only about food, clothes, footwear, dwellings, but also about exclusion from common economic, social, cultural and sport activities and about not having the possibility to exercise their basic rights.
According to Eurostat data for 2013, about 16.6% of the population in EU Member States (83 million people) were living with income lower than the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. In Slovenia in 2014 this figure was 14.5% or 290,000 people, i.e. one in seven inhabitants of Slovenia.
In 2013, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was the lowest in the Czech Republic (8.6%) and the highest in Serbia (24.5%). In Slovenia and Switzerland the rate was 14.5% and they both ranked among the countries in which the at-risk-of-poverty rate was low. Lower rates were recorded in 11 out of 33 countries covered by the survey. There were, however, seven countries whose rates were over 20% (Spain, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia). The EU-28 average was 16.6%.
When the at-risk-of-poverty threshold is compared between the countries, the situation is no longer favourable for Slovenia, as in 18 countries in 2013 this threshold was higher than in Slovenia; thus also the mean value of the disposable household income in those countries was higher. The at-risk-of-poverty threshold in 2013 ranged from EUR 1,100 in Macedonia or PPS 2,300 in Romania to about EUR 25,700 in Norway or 16,800 PPS in Luxembourg; in Slovenia it stood at about EUR 7,100 or 8,500 PPS. When comparing the at-risk-of-poverty threshold in purchasing power standards (PPS) – which take into account differences in price levels among countries – it is clear that in the Eastern European countries and Portugal this threshold was lower than in Slovenia, while in the Western European countries and Cyprus it was higher than in Slovenia.
The higher the at-risk-of-poverty rate, the lower the material deprivation
In 2013, Slovenia and Switzerland had the same share of persons living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold (14.5%); however, there was a large difference in the annual at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The threshold in Slovenia was not even a third of the Swiss one; the latter was by about EUR 17,400 or 6,900 PPS higher than in Slovenia. Poor people in Slovenia (living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold) were living at a lower standard of living than poor people in Switzerland, Norway, Luxembourg, Austria, Germany and other Western European countries with higher at-risk-of-poverty thresholds and higher standard of living than in the Eastern European countries.
This is also evident from the data on material deprivation which is as a rule (with few exceptions) lower in countries with higher thresholds. The severe material deprivation rate shows how many people cannot afford at least four of the nine deprivation items required for decent living due to lack of financial resources.
In 2013, the severe material deprivation rate was between 0.7% in Switzerland and 43.0% in Bulgaria. It was lower than 5% in Sweden, Luxembourg, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria, and higher than 20% in Greece, Latvia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Macedonia. In Slovenia the share of people (6.7% in 2013 and 6.6% in 2014) was in the middle and below the EU-28 average of 9.6% in view of at least four of the nine material deprivation items.