72m EU citizens threatened by poverty 

Using a set of micro-data and cross-sectional indicators from national sources, Eurostat determined the percentage of people living in households that have less than 60% of the country's median disposable income to live on. Surprisingly, this indicator for social inclusion is best in some poorer countries, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. The Czech Republic's leadership shows that recent policy plays a greater role in combating poverty than a country's historical background. Slovakia, which was part of the same country as the Czech part of the former Czech Republic for more than sixty years until 1993, has the worst indicators eleven years after Czechoslovakia split. 

At-risk-of-poverty rate, total population, 2003                                                                             

Source: Eurostat

Being poor does not mean the same throughout the European Union. While a four-person family with an annual purchasing power of 30,000 euro in Luxembourg is already threatened by poverty, a family with 5,000 euro a year in Lithuania or Latvia is just above the poverty line. The following graph shows where Eurostat locates the threshold in different countries. 

Illustrative value of the poverty line for a two adult two children household, 2003 

Source: Eurostat

Social protection can do a lot to bring down the risk of people falling into poverty. The following graph shows which percentage of the population would risk falling into poverty without any social transfers (top), after pensions (middle) and after all social transfers (bottom). The length of the arrow indicates the percentage of the population saved from poverty by some kind of social transfers. For example, in Denmark, 38% of the population would risk falling into poverty immediately if there were no welfare, but 20 percent are kept over the poverty threshold by the country's social system. Another 6% are dependent on the pension system.  

The percentage of the population that risks falling below the poverty line for 2003 before any social transfers (top), after pensions (middle) and after all social transfers (bottom). Data are missing for the rate before any social transfers (top) for Portugal.

Source: Eurostat

Due to slight differences in methodology, country indicators in this survey are not fully comparable. A standardised methodology is part of the EU-SILC  project, which will deliver its first data at the end of 2006.