The figures also show that almost 6 million people met the three criteria for the risk of poverty: they live in households at risk of poverty (e.g. disposable income is below the poverty line), they face serious material or social deprivation (e.g. they can’t heat their home or they can’t afford one week’s holiday a year) and they live in a household with very low work intensity (e.g. no adult working).
The figures show a very slight increase compared to 2020, when there were 94.8 million people or 21.6 percent of the population.
The differences from country to country vary widely around the European average. In Romania, for example, more than a third (34.4 percent) of the population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The figure is also high in Bulgaria (31.7 percent). Germany (20.7 percent), Belgium (19.3 percent), France (19.3 percent) and the Netherlands (16.6 percent) are among the countries that do better than the EU average. The lowest percentages were recorded in Slovenia (13.2 percent) and the Czech Republic (10.7 percent).
The Eurostat figures also show that the employment situation is a determinant of the risk of poverty or social exclusion. The unemployed are at a much higher risk of falling into this category (risk rising to 64.5 percent in 2021), as are, to a lesser extent, those who are inactive for other reasons (42.3 percent). In general, women, young adults and people with a lower level of education are also more at risk than others.