Nearly 73 mln people at risk of poverty in EU
17:30
The image of a wealthy Europe, to which hordes of migrants are heading, has become ingrained in media messages, so the number of impoverished or at-risk-of-poverty Europeans may come as a surprise to many. In 2022, across the EU, 16.5 percent of residents (nearly 73 million people) were at risk of poverty, according to the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).
The scale of poverty in the EU is quite diverse, ranging from 10.2 percent in the Czech Republic to 12.1 percent in Slovenia and Hungary, and almost 23 percent in Bulgaria, Estonia, and Latvia. Fortunately, Poland is not in an exposed position in this European poverty ranking – in our country, the at-risk-of-poverty rate was 13.7 percent last year, placing us among the countries with the lowest level of this indicator.
From 2012 to 2022, the percentage of people at risk of poverty remained at around 17 percent across the EU, while in Poland, it decreased from 17.1 percent to 13.7 percent. This was, of course, due to significant social transfers such as the 500 Plus program.
