Income poverty: 16.9 % of the population in the EU-27 at risk of income poverty

In 2011, 119.6 million people, or 24.2 % (Figure 1) of the population, in the EU-27 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE), compared with 23.6 % in 2010. In 2008 the rate was also 23.6 %. The AROPE indicator is defined as the share of the population in at least one of the following three conditions: 1) at risk of poverty, meaning below the poverty threshold, 2) in a situation of severe material deprivation, 3) living in a household with very low work intensity. The reduction of the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU is one of the key targets of the Europe 2020 strategy.

The AROPE figure for the EU-27 average, calculated as a weighted average of national results, masks considerable variation between Member States. At one extreme, the Member States with the highest AROPE rates were Bulgaria (49.1 %), Romania and Latvia (both around 40 %), Lithuania (33.4 %), Greece and Hungary (both 31.0 %). At the other extreme, the share of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion was the lowest in the Czech Republic (15.3 %), the Netherlands (15.7 %) and Sweden (16.1 %), Luxembourg and Austria (16.8 and 16.9 % respectively). Overall AROPE rates have slightly increased at EU-27 level between 2010 and 2011 (0.6 pp). The risk of poverty or social exclusion rose by 3.7 pp in Italy and 3.3 pp in Greece, decreasing significantly only in Romania (-1.1 pp) and Portugal (-0.9 pp).