Romania, the top EU countries risk of poverty

European Office of Statistics data (Eurostat) shows that in 2011, the highest proportion of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union is registered in Bulgaria (49 percent), Romania and Latvia (both 40 percent), Lithuania (33 percent), Greece and Hungary (both 31 percent).

At the 27 EU countries level, in 2011 were 119.6 million people - 24.2 percent of the population - at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

The lower levels of this indicator are in the Czech Republic (15 percent), Sweden and the Netherlands (both 16 percent), Austria and Luxembourg (both 17 percent).

An objective of Europe 2020 is out of the category of risk of poverty and social exclusion in the EU of 20 million people by 2020.

Progress towards achieving this goal is measured by three indicators - people at risk of poverty, people facing severe material deprivation and people living in households with very low work intensity (in which adults have used more than 20 percent of their potential employment in the previous year).

In 2011, 17 percent of the population was affected by at least one of these three forms of social exclusion.

Highest risk of poverty in the EU is observed in Romania, Bulgaria and Spain (all 22 percent) and Greece (21 percent) and lowest in the Czech Republic (10 percent), the Netherlands (11 percent), Slovakia, Austria and Denmark (all 13 percent).

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University